MAPLE PARK – Kaneland starters Frankie Brandonisio, Rosie Karl, Sophie Knazur, Danielle McCue, Adalynn Ruh and Mia Vassallo along with fellow seniors Delaney Calabrese, Sydney Nielsen, Carmella Rio and Ryann Williams were the center of attention Thursday night.

With the Interstate 8 Conference title on the line and Sycamore in town looking to spoil the hosts’ senior night fun and keep them from winning their fourth consecutive title, the Knights (25-10, 8-2 I-8) fed off the beautiful rendition of the national anthem by Nielsen and the energy of a loud, packed crowd to win 25-20, 25-15.

“They’ve been a pretty special group,” Knights coach Cyndi Violett said. “I think 10 [seniors] is probably the most I’ve had. I think I maybe had eight the last time I had such a big class. And I’ve know a lot of these kids since they were little, since my son [Parker] is their age.”

Sycamore (19-14, 7-3) came out slowly in both sets, falling behind 4-0 before putting a point on the board. The Spartans were able to overcome their sluggish start, pulling ahead 16-14 in the first set before fading in the end.

“I thought they did a good job of trying to settle in as much as possible, definitely in the first set,” Spartans coach Jennifer Charles said. “If we could’ve settled in a little bit more in the second set I think we’d still be playing.”

Back-to-back kills from Ruh and Karl helped the Knights pull away late in the first set.

“I think we all felt really passionate about winning this game and winning it in two,” Karl said. “That was our goal the whole time. We’ve been practicing really hard and going up and up every single practice and every single game, and it showed tonight.”

The Spartans are used to playing three sets, having done so in 42% of their matches (7-7 in three-set matches) while the Knights have only gone the limit six times (2-4), but one of those victories was in the previous match against Sycamore on Sept. 26.

“We like to play three and make sure the fans get what they paid for,” Charles joked. “We’ve had to come back down a set and win sets 2 and 3, so it’s good see a team willing to fight even if we lost.”

Kaneland ensured there wouldn’t be a third set, jumping ahead 10-3 in the second set behind three unforced errors, a few kills from Karl, another from Knazur and an ace from Brandonisio.

“On our senior night we wanted to come out and play strong in both sets,” Karl said.

Junior Ava Carpenter proved to be a thorn in Kaneland’s side, delivering kills whenever she had the opportunity. Unfortunately for the Spartans, she didn’t have nearly as many chances to finish that they would’ve liked.

“She did a great job and took any ball sent to her and made sure to put that ball down,” Charles said. “I was very proud of Ava.”

Violett thought the Knights limited her chances.

“The game plan was to keep them out of system so she can’t hit the ball,” she said. “We let them back in the first set due to unforced errors. We were trying to hit certain shots and they were just going out. We had to eliminate the errors. The second was working in making sure not to give them more than one point. They only got one point and we made sure we got that ball back.”

And when they did, all their seniors contributed including Rio, whose back-to-back service points made it 13-4 in the second set.

“We were feeding off all the energy,” Rio said. “The energy from the fans, the energy from each other. Just embracing our last home game. The energy was off the chart and all of us were doing our jobs.”

Knazur’s kill finished off the Spartans.

“It felt awesome to get that last kill,” she said. “Everyone was so hyped up.”