Girls Volleyball: Oswego East tops Oswego in 2 on Volley for the Cure Night

OSWEGO – Kylie Kany looked like the happiest kid on the court Thursday night.

The Oswego East senior certainly had reasons to be smiling. She and her teammates played exceptionally well, making short work of crosstown rival Oswego, sweeping the Panthers 25-12, 25-10, while also honoring her uncle John and other loved ones who have battled cancer by raising money and awareness for pediatric cancer as part of Volley for the Cure Night.

“I love the team,” Kany said. “The team chemistry is really good, we have a lot of fun, and we’re always there for each other. We always have a word for the day that really gets us through it and keeps us focused. Today it was ‘confidence.’

“We really needed it and perseverance to help push us through, because we needed that to win.”

Oswego East (8-4, 3-0) held a modest 12-10 lead in the first set, but responded to a violation by scoring the next 10 points to break it open.

“We just came out with a lot of fire,” Wolves senior Cailyn Smiley said. “My team was just backing up my serves, and I had a pretty good serving run. My serves were aggressive, and my team did a really good job of backing me up.”

Players on both teams each wore the name or nickname of one of their loved ones who has been afflicted by cancer.

“It really was an emotional night,” Smiley said. “My granddaddy battled cancer and beat it, but some of my teammates have someone in their family who didn’t beat cancer. It’s really a good thing that we celebrate them and play for them.”

During a night where the Panthers didn’t perform as well as they had been, their effort was strong. Plus they succeeded aside from the game result.

“It’s bigger than they are,” said Panthers coach Julie Zeck, who shared that she has a family member who is dealing with cancer. “The names they wear on their jerseys, it’s bigger than this game. It’s bigger than anything else.

" It would’ve been nice to win, but the reason we’re playing tonight is an even bigger reason.”

The Panthers (8-4, 2-1) are talented, but young with sophomores Ava Flanigan, Sidney Hamaker and Mia Jurkovic and junior Riley Borrowman among their starters.

“We have a lot of young players, and this was probably the biggest game they’ve played, and I think nerves got the best of them,” Zeck said. “We made errors tonight that I haven’t seen them make all season.”

They recently played Barrington to three sets.

“I was hoping that we would’ve risen to the occasion, but it’s a rivalry and a big game, and I’m not taking anything away from (Oswego East),” Zeck said.

“They’re a great team. They were scrappy. They picked everything up. We didn’t have an answer for their front row. It was just tough. If we don’t have an answer, we’re leaving our back row out to dry.”

Showcasing the depth of their talent rather than a singular star, the Wolves got big plays from Vivian Campbell and Samantha Trujillo at the net, as well as from Chloe Austin, Megan Maier and Ava Stiller along with Kany and Smiley.

“We all did really good this time,” Kany said. “We had a lot of good rallies. Of course there are things to correct, but really small things. We did really good. I’m really proud of us.”

Oswego scored the first three points of the second set, but a Smiley ace gave the Wolves an 11-10 advantage. They’d never trail again.

“We know we can always trust each other,” Smiley said. “We got prepared for this yesterday. We were hungry for this win.”