Kaneland smashes way past Crystal Lake South, into sectional finals

SYCAMORE – Kaneland smashed its way into the Class 3A Sycamore Sectional championship match with a 25-15, 25-20 win over Crystal Lake South.

“Another Sweet 16 appearance for us in the last five years, so that’s awesome,” Knights coach Cynthia Violett said. “So hopefully we’ll get it done.”

The Knights were rolling in the second set up 14-7, but the Gators came charging back.

The Gators (31-6) went on a 10-4 run, sparked by a big kill from Jessie Proszenyak. The Gators got into their offensive rhythm and pieced together two three-point runs to push the Knights back on their heels for the first time in the match.

“We just wanted to play to our best potential and with our best intensity,” Proszenyak said. “In that second set, that’s when we fixed (our offense) and started to play back in our own rhythm and how we know how to play.”

The Knights (34-3) responded after a timeout with Bella Rio leading the charge to put the match away. She swatted a kill and then had two service aces to finish the game.

“That feels really good,” Rio said. “I knew I couldn’t score from the front row, so I had to score from the back row.”

The Gators didn’t have an answer for the Knights’ power trio of Rio, Maddie Buckley and Meghan O’Sullivan, with each player knocking down power shots past the Gators’ defense.

“Everyone knows what jobs they have to do,” Rio said. “Everyone did their job, and it paid off.”

The Knights’ offensive attack kept forcing the Gators to defend and stopped them from getting their offense set.

“I think we had a game plan, and we failed to execute some of it,” Gators coach Jorie Fontana said. “I think that just kind of rattled them mentally. Overall, I’m a little disappointed, but I’m so excited that their hearts stayed in it and they’re intensity picked up.

In the first set, the Knights jumped out to a 5-1 lead behind Rio, Buckley and O’Sullivan.

The Gators responded with a 4-0 run to tie the game early, but the Knights went on a 9-2 run after that behind three aces from Mia Kane and kills from Rio and O’Sullivan.

The was the Knights 34th victory of the season, which is a new school record.

Kaneland had something of a home-court advantage in the match. The Knights won at Sycamore in a key Interstate 8 match the week before the postseason started.

“We knew where the courts are,” Rio said. “We knew how far we could run into the walls to get the ball or into the bleachers, so I guess we had the home-court advantage.”