ELGIN – The DeKalb girls volleyball team advanced to the Class 4A Larkin championship match, beating the South Elgin Storm in straight sets, 25-17, 25-17.
It was the Barbs who brought the thunder and lightning as their net front presence proved too much for the Storm to handle. Junior outside hitter Hannah Oehlberg scored quickly and often from the left side.
“During practice, we’ve been working on our block,” Oehlberg said. “We’ve worked on limiting errors and setting. I think we have a solid program and I think we will keep doing well.”
If Oehlberg’s quick offensive attacks were the lightning, junior middle blocker Jasmine Kemp was the thunder. Kemp’s intimidating presence doesn’t just come from a long five-foot, 11-inch frame. She attacks with force usually reserved for outside hitters. Kemp’s pension for going for the big spike had a pronounced effect on the Storm block.
“It’s definitely a part of my game,” Kemp said. “When the opportunity arises, I want to score. Our block has to keep talking. We communicated well tonight and it helped.”
The Barbs will take on the Cary-Grove Trojans, a school that has enjoyed much success with their girls volleyball program over the last few seasons. Barbs coach Jamie DiMaggio says that her team needs to control the ball to beat the Trojans.
“Our serve receives need to be on point,” DiMaggio said. “If we can control the ball against them, we should be able to execute. Tonight, we got a little bit comfortable with a 12-3 lead and we let them back into the game a little bit. We have worked a lot on not committing errors and that’s something where you can see instant results.”
The Storm got out to a slow start, especially in game two, being outscored 12-3 in the second game. From that point, South Elgin actually outscored the Barbs 15-13. Storm coach Joni Plach says that her team’s resiliency was a strong point for them throughout the year this season.
“We have been down like that in games before and came back to win,” Plach said. “I always tell my girls that it’s never over until it is over. The first thing I told them after the game was that they could leave the court with their heads raised. They fought until the very end. Tonight, we tried to make an adjustment to counter their outside hitter to try and get some blocks. We got some good touches, but they are a hard hitting team from the left side.”
Plach also mentioned that while she is excited for the future of the program, they will miss their seniors that will be graduating. One of those seniors, outside hitter Taylor Hankins, reflected on her last game,her career and gave some advice to her younger teammates.
“We played a lot of good volleyball this season,” Hankins said. “We did well in our tournaments, we won our share of games and we took a lot of teams to three that we didn’t think we could have. Our girls just need to stay positive and keep working hard to get better.”