ROCHELLE — The injury bug took another bite from the Rochelle Lady Hub varsity volleyball team on Wednesday, when the girls hosted a nonconference match against Rock Falls.

Already without senior setter Ali Ohlinger, Rochelle lost another key player early in the match, as senior outside hitter Taelynn Rodeghero suffered an ankle injury and didn’t return for the rest of the evening. With Rodeghero sidelined, the Lady Hubs struggled to find their rhythm in the first set. Despite a better effort in the second set, Rochelle was unable to rally back, falling to the Rockets 17-25, 22-25. The Lady Hubs (9-12, 0-4 Interstate 8) have lost nine straight matches.

“Any time a player goes down, especially a player of Taelynn’s caliber, it creates a really weird vibe,” head coach Molly Sly said. “The girls were wondering how she is and how serious the injury was, but they bounced back and they saw that Taelynn wanted to see them succeed.”

Junior hitters Audyn Kemp and Jaydin Dickey did their best to step up on the front line, with Dickey scoring a team-high six kills while Kemp added three kills and three blocks from the middle. Senior libero Dempsey Atkinson anchored the Rochelle defense, collecting a team-best 14 digs with Dickey adding eight digs. Junior Meredith Bruns totaled 10 assists and six digs.

“I think Audyn has already stepped up in big ways and she stepped up even more tonight,” Sly said. “Jaydin put the ball away tonight and our setters know that they can count on her. We give her the ball quite a bit on the right side and she does good things with it.”

Despite losing the opening set, Rochelle took an 8-4 lead to start the second set, pressuring the Rockets from the service line, where the Lady Hubs had three aces in the early going. Rochelle was unable to maintain its advantage, however, as receiving and passing errors enabled the Rockets to rally back late in the second set, where Rochelle was forced to burn two timeouts. 

The Lady Hubs hung tough down the stretch, getting quality defense from back-row players including junior Emori Mickley, who had four digs in her extended playing time with Rodeghero on the sideline. Rochelle will be back in action at the Sterling Invitational on Saturday.

“Emori puts up a great platform,” Sly said. “As long as she’s dug in with the right mindset, I think she’ll do a lot of great things for us. She’s a hustler out there and it was fun to see her succeed.”