South Elgin picks up first win against rival
Updated: September 27, 2011 8:25PM
Change is good. At least it was for South Elgin on Tuesday night. Not only did the Storm switch up their lineup, but in the process they also changed their fortunes against U46 rival Bartlett. With junior Corbin Kehe moving into the setter position and Bri Reum filling for Alison Osborne (ill) the Storm, now in their sixth year of varsity play, finally defeated the visiting Hawks for the first time ever 25-14, 25-19 in an Upstate Eight Valley matchup. It was also a big change from the first meeting between the two clubs a few weeks ago when Bartlett won handily.
“The last time we played them we made a lot of mistakes,” said South Elgin coach Joni Plach. “So our goal this time around was to really cut down on the unforced errors and we did. I thought we played real well. When we don’t make all the mistakes we can be a pretty good team.”
Kehe had nine assists in her first game at the setter position and kept the mistakes to a minimum.
“I thought Corbin did a real nice job of getting the ball to our hitters,” said Plach. “We’ve had her playing setter in practice for quite a while and she just kept getting better, so we thought we’d give her shot.”
After briefly falling behind 2-0 in Game 1 the Storm built some momentum with a 9-2 run and never looked back. Reum had a pair of kills during the run. Amanda Krumler had a kill and an ace. The Storm continued to build on the lead going up 13-5 and then 19-8 on a kill by Sam Krummerer.
“How we play early on usually dictates how the match is going to go for us,” said Plach. “We either build off the positives or get dragged down by the negatives. Tonight we got the early momentum.”
The Storm let an early 8-3 lead slip away in game two and trailed 14-13 after back-to-back aces from the Hawks Katie Hebacek. South Elgin (6-9-1, 2-2) recovered however to pull ahead 15-14 on an ace from Nadler. Then closed out the game strong on an 8-3 run to pull away. Ashley Oandasan had a block and a kill down the stretch for the Storm.
“I always encourage the girls to work as a team,” said Plach. “But at the same time you can only control what you do as a player. And tonight everybody did what they needed to do.”
Oandasan and Nadler had four three kills each to lead the Storm. Rachel Murray added nine digs.
Bartlett (8-13, 0-4) was plagued by errors all match. The Hawks had 10 hitting errors in the first game alone and 12 more unforced errors in the second game , including four missed serves.
“We just straight up stunk,” said Bartlett coach. “Our passing was off. We were slow on defense. We got down and there just seem to be no sense of urgency to turn it around. It’s getting to gut check time on which way the rest of the season is going to go for us, whether we are going to stay down or step it up.”
Elizabeth Arco and Hebacek each had four kills to lead the Hawks.
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