Rochelle reaches double-digit victories after 25-8, 25-13 win Tuesday

ROCHELLE — Celebrations were happening early and often for the Rochelle Lady Hub varsity volleyball team Tuesday evening, when the purple and white showed dominance on both offense and defense during their nonconference battle against the North Boone Vikings.

Looking to bounce back from three consecutive loses to close out the Lady Hub Invitational over the weekend, Rochelle controlled Tuesday’s match from the start and carried their momentum through to the finish, cruising over North Boone for a 25-8, 25-13 win. The Lady Hubs, who totaled 23 digs in the match, went the entire first set without committing a single receive error.

“It feels amazing to come back and win after losing to a few teams that we should have beaten,” senior Kennedy Adamski said. “This was a good win after we had a little bit of a losing streak. Our serve receive was really good tonight and we put the ball away. We continued to put the ball away and they weren’t able to put up a good enough block, so we kept hammering the ball.”

While Rochelle recorded five service aces in the match, North Boone struggled with service errors all evening, which allowed the Lady Hubs to command an early lead in the opening set. Rochelle held a 13-6 advantage midway through the first set, with several kills coming from junior outside hitter Taelynn Rodeghero, who had a team-leading nine kills on Tuesday. With the Vikings unable to break the Lady Hub defense, Rochelle closed the first set with a 12-2 run.

“I think we’ve started the season off really well,” Adamski said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect because we lost so many seniors, but I think we’ve done really well and we’ve filled all of our spots. I think we can win a lot of games and my goal is to prepare our juniors for their senior year. I want to lead the younger kids and show them what it means to be a Lady Hub.”

The late first-set run featured emphatic kills from Rodeghero and senior right side Alivia Henkel, who had five kills in the match. Junior defensive specialist Emma Kennay took the serve to open the second set, compiling two aces during an 8-1 run that enabled the Lady Hubs to once again grab control of the match. The Vikings showed some life midway through the second set, pulling off a 7-2 run as the Lady Hubs started emptying their bench to play some of their reserves.

But the rally wouldn’t be enough to upend the Lady Hubs, who saw junior Makenzie Liezert net an ace off the bench and junior Lauren Dyer notch one of her two kills to preserve the Rochelle lead. A booming kill from Adamski, who had five kills on Tuesday, and an ace from junior Sydney Carmichael concluded the second set and sealed the nonconference win for Rochelle.

Junior setter Ali Ohlinger recorded 19 assists, while Kennay totaled seven digs and junior libero Dempsey Atkinson added four digs for the Lady Hubs (10-5, 0-0 Interstate 8). Rochelle will open the Interstate 8 Conference schedule with a road match at Sandwich on Thursday evening.