ROCHELLE — With a surplus of talented sophomores becoming upperclassmen this year, expectations were high for the Rochelle volleyball team after the Lady Hubs finished 8-24-2 in 2016 including a loss to Dixon in the regional quarterfinals.

Rochelle started the 2017 season strong, going 5-5-2 over its first 12 games while placing second overall in the Lady Hub Invitational at Rochelle Township High School on Sept. 2. The Lady Hubs picked up victories over schools such as Belvidere, Plano and Ottawa while drawing tough opponents like Antioch and Rockford East.

“The girls were all in at the beginning of the year and they were really fighting each other in a good way,” head coach John Pfaff said. “We started off really well… I think the girls treated the competition in practice positively… There was a newness to the season and everybody was battling and fighting.”

But a couple of close losses after the Lady Hub Invitational began tipping the scales against Rochelle, and the momentum built up by the Lady Hubs early in the season slowly began to evaporate. Rochelle dropped a tight two-set match at Sycamore (21-25, 21-25) before falling in back-to-back three-set matches against Geneseo (18-25, 25-21, 19-25) and Ottawa (21-25, 25-17, 23-25).

The Lady Hubs defeated only two opponents (Leland-Earlville and Prophetstown) over their last 22 matches following their home tournament. Rochelle’s final loss of the season came against Wheaton Academy in the IHSA Class 3A Regional Quarterfinals, and the team finished with an overall record of 7-25-2.

“I don’t know if we had the players last year to compete against the other teams in our conference,” Pfaff said. “I think we had a more talented team this year, but I also think we ran into a couple of things throughout the season… We couldn’t find that one lineup that was going to work.”

Rochelle will graduate seven seniors from the volleyball program this year including Jacie Wyatt, who was named the team’s Most Valuable Player after recording a team-high 136 assists and 20 aces while finishing second on the team in both kills (77) and blocks (22). Wyatt also totaled 65 digs, third-most among Rochelle players.

Morgan Knight led the Lady Hubs in blocks (24) while recording 42 kills prior to suffering a season-ending injury. Alexis Crawford added 14 blocks and 41 kills, and Allysa Harding turned in a well-rounded stat line with 24 kills, 38 assists and 26 digs. Other notable seniors include Kendra DeLaTorre, Faith Roush and Emma Valentine.

“Each of them had their positives and they played really well together,” Pfaff said. “We’ll miss them both individually and collectively… Just knowing the seniors over the past four years, we’re definitely going to miss those girls.”

Despite going 15-49-4 over the past two seasons, there are reasons for the Lady Hubs to be optimistic about 2018. Rochelle will return several juniors including libero Sarah Craven and outside hitter Emma Mehrings, who led the Lady Hubs in both digs (125) and kills (85) respectively.

More potential returners include juniors Grace Orlikowski (60 kills and 39 digs), Emily Engelkes (28 digs and six aces), Kelsey Thompson (16 digs and five aces) and Abby Tilton (nine kills), who received Rochelle’s Most Improved Player honor this fall. Sophomores Maggie Duval, Katie Van Hise and freshman Clare Green are three more names to keep an eye on.

“The girls will have to be very unselfish players,” Pfaff said. “They’ll have to try anything and play anywhere to help the program turn things around. That’s a lot to ask from a high school athlete… Hopefully the juniors and the sophomores can stay together as a group and try to get some more wins not by pure ability, but by mental toughness.”