Volleyball: Rock Falls survives tough test from Winnebago

ROCK FALLS – A short-handed Rock Falls volleyball team got pushed to the brink in the second set of its Big Northern match on Tuesday at Tabor Gym by Winnebago.

The Rockets, after taking the first set, faced set point in the second set before rallying to take the final three points. Claire Bickett staved off set point with a kill, Cara Goff brought about match point by taking care of an overpass, and a Winnebago cross-court attempt went wide to end it in a 25-17, 27-25 win for the Rockets.

“It was just getting up because we were so down, when we were losing some points we were so down on ourselves, and then our energy started picking up a bit,” Rock Falls setter Denali Stonitsch said. “We were just thinking we’ve got to push these last few points, and I think our energy was our most good thing in our game.”

The win comes at the tail end of back-to-back nights in action for the Rockets, who beat Byron on Monday.

“Winnebago came ready to go, and we have had so many games we haven’t had a practice in over a week,” Rock Falls coach Sheila Pillars said. “We just needed that regrouping, and thankfully we get it [Wednesday]. We’re down a couple players and we battled through. That’s all I can ask of my team. They played until the end.”

Rock Falls (11-1, 6-0 Big Northern) had to fight back after trailing in the first set as well. Winnebago jumped out to an 8-5 lead thanks to six Rockets miscues in the span of seven points. But Rock Falls was able to tie the score on back-to-back blocks from Nicolette Udell and Mallory Pinske, followed by a Pinske kill.

“Our biggest thing is we’re not a tipping team, so when we start tipping, that shows me that we’re intimidated,” Pillars said. “I told them, ‘You’ve got to start being aggressive.’ We had to finally start using fakes, some slides, something different to make that middle blocker move, because those middles were really good and we were getting stuck with touches and blocks they were getting on us, and we just had to readjust.”

After a service error put the Indians back in front 9-8, Rock Falls reeled off five straight points, capped by back-to-back aces from Stonitsch.

Goff added an ace moments later to cap off a run to put the Rockets in front 17-10. Winnebago was able to cut the deficit to four on a couple of occasions before the Rockets closed things out by taking five of the final six points.

In the second set, neither team led by more than two until a Winnebago run made it 17-14. That run included a hit from Udell which Winnebago struggled to pass, the ball careening up into the rafters and into the retracted basketball backboard before play was whistled dead by officials. Given the replay, Winnebago’s Jaime Mueller served an ace.

After a Winnebago service error cut its lead to 17-15, the Indians took the next two points, with Signe Dobbs tooling a block and Hayley Starkey following that with an ace.

But Bickett answered with two kills and an ace in the next four points. After the teams exchanged miscues, Pinske finished off an overpass to get the Rockets within one, and Stonitsch tied the score with an ace down the line, a ball Winnebago players backed off from calling “out” before watching it land in.

“I was trying to go for the line because I knew the girl who was right there, she was missing some of my serves and they had to push her back so she wasn’t passing,” Stonitsch said. “So I was just like, ‘You know what, I’ll go for her and hopefully I get the ace.’”

Stonitsch also had 17 assists for the Rockets.

Playing without Maya Sands, who sat out with a foot injury, the Rock Falls hitting duties went to Goff, Udell, Pinske and Bickett, with Bickett’s eight kills and five digs leading the way. Bickett, a freshman, had five kills in the second set alone, with four of those accounting for four of the Rockets’ final 11 points.

“I think she needs to use her size to the best of her ability,” Pillars said of Bickett. “I think she’s still learning the game and what she can and can’t do. I think she stopped thinking and just started hitting, and that’s when it kind of turned around for her.”

Goff had three kills and nine digs. Pinske had seven kills. The short-handed Rockets pressed sophomore Rylee Johnson into service for her second varsity appearance; she also played Monday against Byron.