Volleyball: Rochelle hosts Kaneland on Volley for the Cure night

Lady Hubs fall to Knights 19-25, 16-25

Russell Hodges
Posted 10/10/19

After falling in a very competitive match against Sycamore on Tuesday, head coach Molly Sly was anxious to see how the Lady Hubs would bounce back when the Rochelle volleyball team hosted another tough conference opponent, Kaneland, on Thursday.

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Volleyball: Rochelle hosts Kaneland on Volley for the Cure night

Lady Hubs fall to Knights 19-25, 16-25

Posted

ROCHELLE — After falling in a very competitive match against Sycamore on Tuesday, head coach Molly Sly was anxious to see how the Lady Hubs would bounce back when the Rochelle volleyball team hosted another tough conference opponent, Kaneland, on Thursday.

Wearing their pink uniforms in celebration of Volley for the Cure, the Lady Hubs kept with Kaneland for most of the opening set before the Knights pulled away with a strong start in the closing set to defeat Rochelle 25-19, 25-16 and drop the Lady Hubs to 17-14 overall. Senior Katie Van Hise led the team with eight kills, while junior Clare Green had 10 assists.

Junior Ellie Kinn recorded 11 digs on defense, with sophomore Zoey Tabor adding seven digs. Green also finished with seven digs including a brilliant save near the end of the second set.

“Clare made a fantastic save for us,” Sly said. “She comes out ready to play every single game and I love her spark and her fire. She wants to win and I love her desire to go out and get it every single game.”

Rochelle tipped off the match with the first two points before Kaneland strung seven straight points together to lead 7-2. The Lady Hubs fired back with a 7-2 run of their own to even the set 9-9 and both teams split the next 10 points to remain deadlocked halfway into the set. But the Knights rallied off three consecutive points to go ahead 17-14 and force a Rochelle timeout.

The 3-point burst was part of an 8-2 Kaneland run that put the Knights ahead 22-16 before both squads split the final six points of the set. Another slow start hurt the Lady Hubs in the second set, as defensive errors allowed the Knights to start up 10-3 and eventually pull ahead 19-8. Rochelle fought back briefly, stringing a 7-3 run together to keep Kaneland slightly on its heels before the Knights closed the match by winning three points in a row.

“We can’t wait until the other team has point No. 24 before we start running balls down,” Sly said. “We need to read the ball… We had a lot of touches at the net and I thought we read where they were going to hit the ball pretty well. I’m looking for us to finish the season with a couple of wins and to finish on a win before entering the regional.”

Rochelle received the No. 4 seed in the IHSA Class 3A Regional at RTHS beginning the week of Oct. 28. The Lady Hubs will continue conference play against LaSalle-Peru and Morris next week before finishing the regular season with matches against Ottawa and Plano the following week.