Girls Volleyball: Kennedy Hugunin, Oswego rally for season-opening win at Rosary

AURORA – Kennedy Hugunin was asked to do things on Tuesday night not normally required of a volleyball middle.

The 5-foot-10 Oswego senior played back row, six rotations in fact. For a spell in the second set, she didn’t even play middle.

“That second set I was playing right side,” Hugunin said. “We were definitely not expecting that. I don’t know what happened. I think the lineup got messed up, but somehow it worked out in our favor.”

Hugunin was a big reason why it did.

She came up with clutch hits at critical times late in the match. She made a number of big saves from the back row. And she did it all with her unique combination of competitive fire and a bubbly personality with a smile that seemingly never leaves her face.

Oswego needed all of it to rally from down a set and match point in the second for a 17-25, 26-24, 25-17 in the Panthers’ season-opening match at Rosary.

Hugunin delivered a tip kill to turn away Rosary’s match point up 24-23 in the second, had the block for set point in the second and her seventh kill for match point in the third.

“She’s a special kid. You’re not going to hear a negative thing about her from me,” Oswego coach Julie Zeck said. “She has a huge heart, but she’s also a huge competitor.”

Riley Borrowman added six kills, Kristen Frank four kills and Sydney Hamacker three aces for Oswego. The Panthers overcame the loss of their libero to a knee injury on the first point of the match, 11 errors in the first set and deficits of 11-4, 17-12 and 21-17 in the second.

“These girls overcame I don’t even know what you would call it,” Zeck said. “They fought hard, they came back, and they played the way they play at practice. To see that they’re mentally tough this early in the season is good. We’ll take the win anyway we can take it.”

Rosary (0-2) got two kills and two aces, and a long service run, from sophomore Claire McEniry, and two kills from senior setter Sarah Schmidt in the first set. Another long McEniry service run in the second, a 6-0 run, had the Royals ahead 8-2 early in the second set.

But the wheels came off for the Royals after Oswego forced the third set.

“Our serve receive got a little shaky,” Rosary coach Francisco Martinez said, “and when you’re not able to put aggressive swings on the volleyball it makes for easier passes on the other side and it allows the other team to attack full strength.”

Borrowman, a 5-foot-11 junior, had some big attacks for Oswego at key points. She had back-to-back kills to close the Panthers within 18-16 in the second set, and another to draw within 21-18 when Rosary was trying to pull away and take the match.

“Riley is going to be a key player for us,” Zeck said. “We can use her at any of the front row positions – middle, outside, right side. Riley is going to be key and she came up with some big hits for us tonight.”

The wildest point of the match followed Borrowman’s shot to get it to 18-16. On a long rally, Oswego made a spectacular dig save to keep it alive, and Hugunin stuck her arm out and flicked the ball over for an unlikely point.

“I don’t know how I did that or how it went down,” Hugunin said. “All I know is that it went over and got the point. I was a little nervous there, but momentum and picking up the energy kind of got in [Rosary’s] head and picked up after that disaster of the first set that we won’t talk about.”

Hugunin couldn’t explain the point, but Zeck had no trouble explaining what her middle means to the Panthers.

“Kennedy is the backbone of the team. She has such an amazing competitive spirit to her,” Zeck said. “Completely unethical to let my middle play back row but I needed Kennedy on the court. She played back row, and she played it amazing. She was the glue.”

Martinez will be searching for something similar to stick for his Royals in a season of transition.

“We kind of got a lot of underclassmen. It’s a season of growth for us,” he said. “We know we can make big strides with this group, and you saw it in the first set. On the flip side we have a couple cracks there that we need to continue to work on as a group.”