Girls Volleyball: ‘We didn’t have it today’ Yorkville’s banner season comes to close with sectional loss to No. 1 seed Metea Valley

OSWEGO – Yorkville struggled to get in a rhythm during Monday’s Class 4A Oswego Sectional semifinal against Metea Valley.

That proved to be far too much to overcome against a great team as the top-seeded Mustangs rolled to a 25-14, 25-20 sweep to advance to Wednesday’s sectional title game against Plainfield North.

“I felt like we just couldn’t really get into a rhythm with passing, setting and hitting,” Foxes coach Lisa Molek said. “And if I’m being honest, I feel like we truly beat ourselves. I felt like we didn’t have it today as a group and we need as many individuals on our team as we can to be successful.”

Molek didn’t want to take anything away from a Mustangs team that was impressive from start to finish, but was disappointed that the Foxes didn’t compete like she had hoped.

“I’m not discrediting anything from Metea,” she said. “I feel like they have a great program and some really skilled players, but I do feel like we didn’t individually play as good as we could’ve played and made it a better game.”

Undoubtedly, some of that was caused by the Mustangs who can make really good teams look out of sync.

Metea Valley (36-2) jumped to an 8-3 lead in the first set and while the Foxes tried to regroup with a pair of early timeouts, they didn’t begin to click until the second set.

Yorkville (31-6) suddenly was rolling after kills fromJanelle Pye-Blacknard and Saige Avery and an ace from Avery to take an 8-4 lead in the second set. That caught Metea Valley coach Dave MacDonald’s attention as he called timeout and the Mustangs responded with a 6-2 run to tie the game at 10-10.

“I told the girls when we were down early that I didn’t feel nervous at all because we’ve come back before,” he said. “In our Naperville North matches they beat us to 20 in probably three out of the four sets we played them and came back and beat a good team. Yorkville is great and we scouted them really well and had a game plan and stuck with that and it’s a credit to the girls.”

The Foxes led the second set 15-12 but the Mustangs responded with a 7-0 run that was highlighted by back-to-back aces from Annabelle Troy. The junior upped her total to 70 aces on the season.

“I really just try to focus on getting it (my serves) in and then if I can, I serve it aggressively to the zone that I’m given,” Troy said. “I knew we could do it, we just had to calm down and focus more to be able to comeback and take it.”

The Mustangs ended Yorkville’s season by outscoring the Foxes, 14-5.

“I can’t say enough about these girls,” MacDonald said. “I’ve said it multiple times. It’s a great group, very veteran, very humble. They just see the moment and they essentially take a deep breath and get ready to play. No moment is too big.”

Metea Valley senior Morgan Rank, who led the Mustangs with 10 digs, is basking in the awesomeness of knowing she’ll get to next play for a sectional and that Troy, who is her cousin, will be there contributing to the effort.

“We all did our job tonight,” Rank said. “It’s crazy. Me and Regan (Holmer) since freshman year have been saying that senior year would be something special. We’re just not stopping. We’re going all the way.”

While the Foxes season came to a close, their fantastic run, filled with countless wonderful memories and accomplishments, won’t be forgotten. Yorkville won the program’s first conference title since 2015 and first regional championship since 2007.

“I feel like my team has really benefited and played off of the confidence and support of each other and I felt like we didn’t get that tonight,” Molek said. “I don’t want to discredit their season because this group of kids is the best group of kids I’ve ever had. I love them to death and I’m sad that the season is over for them.”