Volleyball: L-P shakes off slow start to top Rochelle in two sets

La Salle-Peru senior Kaylee Abens felt the Cavaliers weren’t on their game Tuesday in a two-set loss at Sycamore.

But the Cavs turned things around Thursday.

L-P shook off a slow start to beat Rochelle 25-21, 25-17 in an Interstate 8 Conference match at home.

“I thought we played with a lot more enthusiasm compared to when we played Tuesday,” Abens said. “I think everyone was just down and not ready to play at Sycamore and thought they were going to play just like how they played the first match between us (a 25-16, 24-26, 25-21 L-P win Sept. 14).”

The Cavs struggled with serve-receive early in the first set, falling behind 7-1, as Rochelle’s Ali Ohlinger served five straight points, including four aces.

“[Ohlinger] was on a roll,” L-P coach Mark Haberkorn said. “We just got on our heels. Once we got out of her serving, that’s when we started to play a lot better.”

“We just picked up our heads and said we need to get this done, don’t worry about the pass and just keep going.”

—  Kaylee Abens, La Salle-Peru senior

The Hubs hit the ball out of bounds to end the run, and L-P began to chip away at the deficit.

“We just picked up our heads and said we need to get this done, don’t worry about the pass and just keep going,” Abens said.

L-P trailed until a tip by Aubrey Duttlinger, a Rochelle error and a kill by Katie Sowers gave the Cavs a 20-19 lead.

An L-P error tied the set 21-21, but a tip by Sowers and a block by Duttlinger gave the Cavs the lead for good. L-P closed it out with a block by Kelsey Frederick and a Rochelle error.

“We started off slow,” Haberkorn said. “Starting off, our passing was a little bit off and everything just seemed to be out of sync. All of a sudden, we made some plays, we got a couple servers get on a run and things started to flow. We got a block here and a hit there and everything seemed to go pretty smooth after that.”

The Cavs carried the momentum into the second set, taking a 5-1 lead then pushing it to 9-2 behind the serving of Abens with a run that included kills by Aubrey Duttlinger, Frederick and Sowers, and a block by Frederick.

“We served very well and we picked up on our serve-receive and we just did everything we were supposed to do,” said Abens, who had 11 points and nine digs.

The Cavs led throughout, extending the lead to as many as nine, but the Hubs made a run to pull as close as four.

“In set 2 we got out to a big lead, but give Rochelle credit, they never quit,” Haberkorn said. “They played hard. They earned their points. It wasn’t like we coasted. Rochelle put pressure on us at the end, and we had to finish.”

For the Cavs (22-5, 6-3 I8), Addison Urbanski had nine assists, eight points, five kills, five digs and a block. Sowers finished with eight points, seven assists, five kills and a block. Aubrey Duttlinger had four kills and two blocks, and Marissa Sanchez had 12 digs and 10 points.