Kaneland storms back to down Sycamore in 3

SYCAMORE – Kaneland rallied in the final set to dispatch pesky Sycamore in Interstate 8 Conference action Tuesday.

After the teams split the first two sets, Kaneland came from behind in the final set to win the match, 25-14, 20-25, 25-21.

“This team always likes to do it the hard way. They come out, win big then they like to play tight,” Kaneland coach Cyndi Violett said. “They have a [desire] to not lose which is a big, huge thing. In the third set, we started being aggressive which helped a lot.”

Sycamore (5-11, 1-2) jumped out to an early lead in the last set, leading 7-2 after a Kaneland (16-6, 3-0) serving error.

The Knights started chipping away at the Spartans’ lead and pulled in front, 9-8 on a Kaneland hitting error. A kill by Sycamore junior Norah Chami tied the match at 9. Grace Remsen’s tip kill put Kaneland back in front. The Knights went on a 4-1 scoring spurt to pull ahead 14-10 but could not put away the Spartans.

Twice mid-way through the set. Sycamore pulled within a point, but each time Kaneland would return the margin to two. The Spartans tied the contest twice in the late going – another Chami spike knotted the set at 20-20 and a Khiara Thomas kill made it 22-22.

“Norah came out and did her job well,” Sycamore coach Jennifer Charles said. “That was our focus for today, everyone doing their job.”

An Olivia d’Escoto tip kill put Kaneland up for good 23-22. The Knights capitalized on Spartan errors to take the set and the match.

“I believe in my team and how strong we are. I had no worriers we weren’t going to pull out that win,” said junior Kayli Loonam, who led Kaneland with eight kills.

Sycamore pulled away from Kaneland during an eight-point Mckenna Ranieri service run early in the second set. After a Chami spike put the Spartans up 8-6, the senior stepped to the line. When her serve was finally broken by a Kaneland kill, Sycamore led 15-7. The Knights rallied late in the set to pull within 20-19, but two Kaneland hitting errors and a Sycamore block extended the Spartans advantage to 23-19.

Ava Carpenter scored the winning point with one of her game-high 11 kills.

“I think since we are a very young team, it takes a little bit for us to gel together, and I think we are getting better every game,” Carpenter, one of three seniors on the team, said. “Once we work together more, we will definitely battle with them and beat them next time.”

“Mckenna came into that second set and served some amazing balls to keep us in the game and built our momentum in the set,” Charles said.

Kaneland jumped out to a 3-0 start in the first set. Sycamore tied the contest at 3 all. The Knights quickly regained the lead and never trailed again.