L-P volleyball uses strong blocking, balanced offense to beat Sycamore

LA SALLE – After recent struggles blocking, the La Salle-Peru volleyball team emphasized it in practice Monday.

It paid off Tuesday as the Cavaliers put up a wall at the net, recording nine blocks en route to a 25-17, 25-23 victory over Sycamore in an Interstate 8 Conference match.

“We really just focused on working together, our right sides and outsides with our middles,” said senior Addison Urbanski, who had a team-high three blocks. “We focused on everything [coach Mark Haberkorn] has taught us and just doing the little stuff to get there.”

Haberkorn said the strong presence at the net also helped the back row defense, which was led by Taylor Martyn (12 digs) and Brooklyn Ficek (eight digs).

“Our defense really shined,” Haberkorn said. “Our blocking was exceptional, and our defense seemed to be in the right spots for a lot of their hard driven spikes.

“Our defensive players did a great job with attention to detail on where they have to be in case they go outside the block or through the seam.”

Offensively, the Cavs (13-11, 6-5 I8) spread the wealth with Urbanski, Camryn Piscia and Jayden Dyke putting down five kills each, while Olivia Shetterly and Emma Garretson each had four kills.

“We have a lot of balance,” Haberkorn said. “We like to say we out-team them on the net. We had five girls with four or more kills. That makes it very difficult to stop.”

The Cavs had success with quick sets to the middle to Piscia and Shetterly.

“I think we were doing good connecting with our middles,” Urbanski said. “Both of our middles are fantastic and do a great job getting the ball down.”

In the first set, a kill by Garretson and back-to-back kills by Urbanski gave the Cavs the lead for good at 5-3.

L-P pushed its lead to 16-8 with a four-point run by Katie Sowers, while a Sycamore error, a block by Shetterly and a kill by Urbanski extended the lead to 21-12.

Urbanski ended the set with a kill.

In the second set, the Spartans jumped to an 11-4 lead behind four kills by Grace Lichthardt.

“We played much better the second set,” Sycamore coach Jennifer Charles said. “I think we did a much better job of limiting them from going on runs. I think we were able to find our shots more in the second set. We were serving a lot more aggressive than the first set. I think our serve-receive overall was really, really good.”

Sycamore served out of bounds to give the ball back to L-P, and Kaylee Abens served the Cavs from down 11-5 to leading 12-11 during a run that included an ace, two kills each by Piscia and Dyke and a block by Sowers.

“We got big serves from Kaylee Abens in the second set when we were down,” Haberkorn said. “She came in when we were down six and served us to the lead. We got contributions from everybody.”

The set was tied at 12, 13 and 14 before three-point runs by Ficek and Martyn pushed the L-P lead to 21-15.

However, a tip by Laci Neece gave the serve to Reese Morgan, who rattled off four points to bring Sycamore within a point.

Neece tied it at 22 with a kill, but Garretson set the ball to the far corner and Shetterly killed a free ball to bring it to match point.

After another kill by Neece, Sycamore (12-18, 4-7) hit the ball out of bounds to end the match.

Note: It was pink night at L-P. Saralyn Shetterly, who helped organize the fundraising efforts, said about $4,000 was raised for Cops 4 Cancer. “I want to thank everybody who contributed,” Haberkorn said. “It’s a great cause and a lot of people deserve a lot of credit.”