Grayslake, IL:  Harper lost soundly to a very good College of Lake County team, this year. 

Harper College is now 18-14 overall against College of Lake County since 2002.  Harper's last loss to College of Lake County was all the way back on October 8, 2011.  Nearly an 11-year run!

In the first set, the game started out tight at 1-1 and 2-2, but College of Lake County raced to a 5-9 lead. Harper stayed even for a while to 8-12.  Then behind some excellent serves tied the score at 14-14.  However, College of Lake County continued to outplay Harper for another 4 point lead at 15-19.  Again behind some solid serving, Harper pulled to 19-19 when College of Lake County hit it out on the back line. But unfortunately the Lake County baseball player decided to call it in and it was not overruled… so now Harper is down 19-20 and receiving serve instead of continuing on a serving roll in a favorable rotation 20-19.  College of Lake County held on to win 22-25.  Harper had 8 hitting errors in this set.  College of Lake County was excellent on defense.  Natalia Smiech (Sleepy Hollow/Dundee-Crown H.S.) and Ava Belluomini (Mount Prospect/Resurrection H.S>) led Harper each with 3 kills.  A major bright spot for Harper was libero Alyssa Rodda's (Inverness/Barrington H.S.) 11 digs.  Asia Williams (Hoffman Estates/Conant H.S.) added 3 aces on 5 serves.

In the second set, the score was tight again at the start… 3-3, and 4-4, but College of Lake County gained the usual 4-point lead at 7-11 and 8-12;  then soared to a 8-16 lead on the way to an easy 14-25 win.  Alyssa Rodda (Inverness/Barrington H.S.) added 8 more digs.

In the third and final set, a dejected Harper team fell behind early 2-9, 4-11 and 9-18 on the way to a 15-25 loss.  Alyssa Rodda (Inverness/Barrington H.S.) added 9 more digs for a Harper College match-high 28 digs.  Ava Belluomini (Mount Prospect/Resurrection H.S>) added 7 digs.  Natalia Smiech (Sleepy Hollow/Dundee-Crown H.S.) was 6-6 serving with an ace in this set.

Next Harper Volleyball match is Wednesday, 9/7 at North Park University in Chicago.