Minooka rallies to top Romeoville
Marquez (4) sets the ball in Minooka Tuesday September, 20, 2011.
| Ray Luna ~ For Sun-Times Media
Updated: September 20, 2011 10:08PM
Minooka started slowly and had to rally to earn a hard-fought 26-24, 25-18 Southwest Prairie Conference victory Tuesday night over visiting Romeoville.
Minooka outside hitter Stacey Perinar was a one-woman wrecking crew for the Indians as she put away shot after shot and seemed to be everywhere. She finished with 12 kills and four aces.
“I think that we didn’t exactly come out and execute, and maybe thought it’s our home court and we’re just playing volleyball, but then we started feeding off each others’ energy,” said Perinar, a team captain.
In addition to Perinar’s contributions, Minooka (10-2, 5-0) was aided by Skyler Day (7 kills), Tessa Griparis (2 kills, 2 blocks) and Ann Marie Bachmann (2 kills). Romeoville (10-9, 2-2) was led by Latasha Fizer (2 kills, 4 blocks) and Rianna Wagner (5 kills).
“Good teams just have to find a way to win at the end,” Minooka coach Chris Hoelscher said. “I just told the girls that we have been here before and here’s what we are going to do. Fortunately, we got the serve back and then got the win.”
The Indians seemed to be their own worst enemy in Game 1 as an 18-13 lead quickly evaporated and turned into a 23-21 deficit after several errors.
“Stacey is our stud but we had six service errors and 11 hitting errors, so we just have to execute,” Hoelscher said. “Romeoville has some bangers and they were always hustling and we just had to find a way to get it done.”
Romeoville led 24-23 but couldn’t close out Game 1 as Perinar had a kill and ace late.
“We have to come out and play every game every team the same and execute,” Perinar said. “We just need to play our game and not let up and try to repeat as conference champions.”
Perinar’s jump-serve proved to be too much for Romeoville in Game 2 as her fourth ace on the night put Minooka up 10-3.
The Spartans closed the gap to 18-15 on a kill by Wagner, but faltered down the stretch with several hitting errors.
“Minooka is definitely one of the best teams that we have played so far and I felt that our girls gave them good competition on their court,” Romeoville coach Melanie Rellstab said.
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