College volleyball: Sauk Valley can’t fend off Carl Sandburg charge in Arrowhead loss

DIXON – Fighting for a chance to share the Arrowhead Conference title, the Sauk Valley Skyhawks started to find their rhythm late in the second set Tuesday night against Carl Sandburg.

But after taking that momentum and building a lead in the third set, the Skyhawks were unable to hold off a late charge by the Chargers in a 25-15, 25-23, 25-21 loss in the SVCC Gym.

[ Photos of Sauk Valley vs. Carl Sandburg volleyball ]

The win clinched the Arrowhead title for Sandburg (22-13, 7-0), as Sauk Valley (17-16, 5-2) is next in the league standings with only one match left to play for each.

“We won it outright, and it’s sweet. The team has worked hard, and they deserve it,” Sandburg coach Todd Winkler said.

The Skyhawks made them work for it, though. After Sandburg took control midway through the first set, it carried that momentum and led 24-18 in the second set before Sauk got in a groove.

Kills by Maya Gartin, Kierra Collins and Jaelyn Fitzgerald cut the deficit to 24-21 and forced a Sandburg timeout, then a Chargers hitting error and an ace by Addyson Kinn got the Skyhawks within 24-23 before Sandburg called another timeout.

A kill by Lauren Erke closed out the set for Sandburg, but Sauk had found a little something down the stretch.

“We definitely started playing for each other. We were keeping the ball off the ground and got a different mentality of the game,” Sauk setter Gabby Jones said. “We got a couple big blocks to turn the energy around, and we sped up our offense to the best of our ability. Carl Sandburg is a great blocking team, and their defense is great, but I think figured out we can’t just slam the ball every time, so we threw a couple tips in there and it turned the game around.

“We definitely lacked energy in the first set, but then once we get going playing for each other, it’s great to get in the flow.”

The Skyhawks carried that momentum into the third set, and Jones and fellow setter Cadence Stonitsch were able to spread the wealth amongst their attackers. A kill by Mckenzie Hecht, a block by Gartin, and a kill and a block on consecutive points by Nicole Boelens gave Sauk a 6-4 lead, then Fitzgerald got hot with a pair of tip-kills and two more spikes before Gartin served an ace for a 13-6 lead.

“We have a lot of options, so it’s nice trusting your teammates and knowing that when the ball does go to them, they’re going to do something smart with it,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s nice to have that confidence in your teammates.

“I think when we start communicating is when we get going. We’ll get real excited as a team and start working together, and that’s kind of when things start getting put together. It helps a lot when we all get excited, because everybody’s emotions affect one another, so it really helps when we’re all up and all together.”

A Fitzgerald block ended a short Sandburg run, and a kill by Hecht made it 16-12 Sauk. A Fitzgerald kill halted another Chargers run, then a Gartin kill made it 20-18.

But a kill by Jadyn Swan and a Skyhawks error tied it 20-20, then a Fitzgerald kill gave Sauk its last lead at 21-20 before a double hit tied it again at 21-all. Erke had a kill, Swan stuffed a block, and after a Skyhawks timeout, a Sauk hitting error put it at match point. Erke then closed it with a kill.

“I don’t think we pressed too hard. I just told them, ‘Hey, we’ve got to make short little runs, and once we give it up, we’ve got to get it right back and we can’t let them have a big run,’ and that’s what we did,” Winkler said of the comeback. “We just let them have short little runs, then we got the momentum and got in the right rotation at the end, and that made a big difference.”

Fitzgerald finished with 14 kills and two blocks, Boelens had 10 kills and 20 digs, and Jones dished 21 assists for Sauk Valley. Tiana Tichler spiked six kills, Gartin added four more, and Kinn had 21 digs. Hecht chipped in 18 digs, and Stonitsch dished 14 assists.

“We found that if we played for each other, not just for ourselves, we do a lot better. When we have fun, when we support each other, it turns out a lot better that way,” Tichler said. “If someone’s playing good, give them the ball, they deserve it. Especially if somebody is putting away their kills and it’s a close game like this, give the hot hand the ball. When we do that, and support each other, the confidence goes up, and we play a lot better.”

Erke led Sandburg with 15 kills, and she also had eight digs. Swan had eight kills and two blocks, and Gracie Rademacker finished with eight kills, 14 digs and two aces. Libero Jasmin McDaniel led the back-row defense with 16 digs, Addison DeSpain chipped in six digs, and Carmyn Baldwin added eight digs and dished 34 assists by spreading the attack out to all of her hitters to keep the Sauk defense off-balance.

“My setter does a great job distributing, and if we can pass – which we did really well tonight – then she’s got everybody to use and we can spread it out,” Winkler said. “Last time we played them our middles killed them, so we went to that, and they played a little defense on us, so we had to do a couple of other things. My right side hit .556 tonight, so that opened up everything else.”