HUNTLEY – Huntley was without junior Georgia Watson, an NCAA Division I Kentucky commit, for its match against Crystal Lake South on Tuesday after the 6-foot-3 right-side hitter suffered a back injury in practice Monday.

But that didn’t slow down the Red Raiders.

Huntley, powered by eight aces in the opening set, got off to a commanding start and cruised to a 25-13, 25-17 win against South, securing the outright Fox Valley Conference championship for the second year in a row.

[ Photos: Crystal Lake South vs. Huntley volleyball ]

Huntley (23-4, 14-1 FVC) graduated many impact starters from last year’s undefeated conference champion, but the Raiders have picked up where they left off. They are 32-1 in their past 33 FVC matches, with the only loss coming to McHenry this season.

“It started from tryouts,” said senior Morgan Jones, a Missouri commit. “We really just work together well, we trust each other. The drills we do in practice prepare us for these moments. I feel like we had a lot of practice for this, and I’m really proud of us.”

Huntley coach Karen Naymola learned midday Tuesday that Watson, who will get an MRI in the coming days, would not be able to play.

She was proud of her team for stepping up in a difficult situation.

“It’s the first step in our list of goals each season,” Naymola said of winning the FVC. “We knew today was going to be a tough match. Literally, last minute, we were trying to walk through and switch up a couple of things in our rotations. I thought the girls did an awesome job adjusting.

“Sienna [Robertson] came up with some big swings for us. Our bench was extremely loud and helping each other out. We had to move [Jones] to right side to put up a bigger block ... and she found ways to score for us.”

Huntley jumped out to a 9-3 lead against South (19-8, 9-6) with freshman Izzy Whitehouse getting three aces. Not long after that, it was senior Lizzy Williams’ turn with a run of seven consecutive service points, including four aces.

As a team, the Raiders had 12 aces. Jones (team-high eight kills) and junior Mari Rodriguez (10 digs) had two aces apiece, and senior setter Laura Boberg (16 assists, three kills) had one. Williams added five kills, and Jocelyn Erling had four blocks.

“We worked a lot in practice nailing the short serves and tricking them, whether it was going deep or short with our hand contacts,” said Whitehouse, who is Naymola’s daughter. “Our serves give us a lot of energy.”

South was led by Gabby Wire with seven kills, five digs and an ace. Morgan Johnson (eight digs) and Logan Georgy had five kills apiece, and Grace Meyer added 10 assists. Olivia Apt had eight assists and Bobbi Wire had five digs.

Gators coach Annie Moore said her team did extra work on serve receive ahead of Tuesday’s match, making the start rather frustrating.

“They serve really aggressive, that’s for sure,” Moore said. “They have a lot of servers who can serve short, serve deep, so we were really struggling to adjust. But I was proud of them because our serve receive from Set 1 to Set 2 was so much better.

“Being able to bounce back from our struggles in the first set was hard.”

Huntley, which has 20-plus victories in 10 consecutive seasons, won its own tournament over the weekend. The Raiders have now won their past eight matches.

“It’s been a lot of fun,“ Boberg said. “I like being able to set our lethal hitters, Morgan [Jones] and Georgia [Watson]. I’m never left upset, I always have a fun time playing. It’s all smiles all the time.”