Morris rallies past Plainfield South
Updated: August 25, 2011 9:22PM
Plainfield South’s inexperience showed through in its opening match of the season. The Cougars lost in consecutive games against Morris in spite of leading both games early.
Morris came away with a 25-23, 25-19 victory Thursday in Plainfield.
“We have a very young team this year with only two seniors,’’ South coach Amy Larson said. “We had too many unforced errors and we really struggled in the serve-receive part of the game.’’
The Cougars showed that inexperience in the second game with nine unforced errors. Despite that, South (0-1) was leading the game 12-11 before the wheels fell off.
Morris’ Marceila Toups put the Redskins ahead for good by serving three straight aces that upped the score to 15-12. Those aces came after an unforced error by South highlighting Larson’s concerns.
“We started slow in both games but we got into a good routine,’’ Morris coach Jackie Litwiller said. “Our services picked up a bit and that helped us get the ball into our hitters. Katie Chatten did a phenomenal job setting the ball for our hitters.’’
Chatten led Morris (1-0) with 17 assists and mixed up her sets while keeping the Cougars defense off balance. Chatten alternated between Kendall Korte, Laney Torkelson and Toups. Her feed to Toups ended the match with a definitive kill.
“I give Katie the liberty to call her own set out there,’’ Litwiller said. “She talks to them and keeps them all involved. She knows how to run that floor.’’
South outside hitter Allison Walvogel is one of the two seniors for the Wildcats and Larson is counting on her to fill multiple roles while her young team bonds. Walvogel responded to that role with several solid hits while leading her team to a 10-4 lead in Game 1.
“As a junior last year I used her all the way around,’’ Larson said. “She will be a key for us as a senior leader. She does it all from the serve-receive game to serving to hitting.’’
“We started off strong and then lost a couple of points and we let them take over,’’ Walvogel said. “My job as a leader is when I see them getting down is to go over and pump them up.’’
Korte led Morris with nine kills. Toups and Morgan Hussey both had three aces for the Redskins. Hussey also recorded five digs.
© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment