Girls volleyball: Juliana Cashmore’s block lifts Johnsburg past Woodstock in KRC action

WOODSTOCK – Johnsburg’s Juliana Cashmore put in extra work on her blocking technique in practice this week, and the Skyhawks sophomore was rewarded with one of her best performances of the year Wednesday night against Woodstock.

Along with seven kills, Cashmore had six blocks to help lead the Skyhawks to a 25-23, 25-17 sweep against the Blue Streaks in Kishwaukee River Conference play at James M. Shipley Memorial Gym.

Cashmore, the team’s only underclassman, came up big time and time again.

“Juliana was on fire today,” Skyhawks coach Abby Bruns said. “All week she’s been struggling, so we worked really hard on the block and making sure the timing was right. And everything clicked tonight. Juliana brings a lot of depth to the team that we’re missing from the middle.

“We’ve got a good three years with her.”

The Skyhawks (5-1, 2-0 KRC) and Streaks (6-4-1, 1-1) were locked in a tight first-set battle, with Woodstock taking a 19-18 lead after a couple of long rallies that were finished off with kills from junior outside hitter Hallie Steponaitis, who was celebrating her birthday Wednesday.

Johnsburg battled back, getting a block from Cashmore, an ace from Emmy Wizceb and a kill from Cashmore to take a 22-20 lead. With the teams later tied at 23-all, the Skyhawks held on to win the first set after a pair of hitting errors from Woodstock.

Johnsburg grabbed a 7-2 lead in the second set and led the entire way.

Cashmore said the Skyhawks stayed positive after Woodstock stormed back in the first set.

“We’re just so encouraging to each other,” Cashmore said. “I feel like this is the best varsity team we’ve had. We’re pretty much like a big friend group, it’s not even a team. We’re like a big family.”

The Skyhawks used a balanced offense to top the Streaks, with seven players getting two or more kills. Wizceb tied Cashmore with a team-high seven kills, Lila Duck had five, and Kaylee Fouke added four. Junior Delaney Stern did a little bit of everything, recording 20 assists, 12 digs, five kills, a block and two aces.

Bruns said the team has been working hard to diversify the offense, so opposing teams can’t key on one or two players. Stern and Fouke are both used as setters for Johnsburg, but Stern has been given a little more freedom in recent matches to attack.

She took full advantage Wednesday.

“We’re trying to utilize her more instead of just setting, trying to get her to hit because Kaylee can really set, too,” Bruns said. “We’re trying to make sure we’re really diverse. I don’t want everybody to think, ‘Oh, here’s our lineup, there we go.’ We’re going to keep moving it around.”

Stern is slowly coming around to the idea.

“I think it was in the middle of one of our games last week. [Bruns] was like, ‘Hey, Delaney, hit,’” Stern said. “I haven’t hit in a long time, so it felt weird, but it worked because I have a really good connection with Kaylee. Good to hit, good to block, good to do all of that, but I love setting. I’ll always love setting.”

For the Streaks, Steponaitis (nine digs), Julia Laidig (two aces) and Makayla Thomas had three kills apiece. Ella Wicker had seven digs and three aces, and Ella White chipped in nine digs.

Woodstock coach Jimmy Neill felt his team’s relative inexperience and players in new positions showed up late in the first set. Woodstock was coming off a 4-0 weekend and a first-place finish at the Hoffman Estates Invitational, so there have been a lot of positives to the season, as well.

The Streaks have a week off before hosting Harvard in another KRC match Sept. 14.

“We battled back against Richmond-Burton [last week] and came up short, and we battled against Johnsburg and came up short,” Neill said. “It’s like we’re right there with these teams, and then it’s just inexperienced play after inexperienced play.”