Girls volleyball: Richmond-Burton completes comeback against Woodstock North, takes over 1st place in KRC

RICHMOND – Richmond-Burton went into Wednesday’s Kishwaukee River Conference match against Woodstock North with lots of fire and energy.

Perhaps too much.

“We were so amped in the beginning,” Rockets coach Mike Kamholz said. “We were just too hyped up. We made a lot of over-aggressive errors.”

Woodstock North, the two-time defending conference champions, took a commanding lead in the first set and held on to win before the Rockets regrouped between sets and made their move.

After looking out of sync in the first set, R-B looked like a different team in the second and third, completing a 21-25, 25-21, 25-19 comeback win to hand the Thunder their first loss of the season and take sole possession of first place in the KRC.

Johnsburg, which also entered play Wednesday without a KRC loss, fell in three sets to Marengo.

“We were talking about this [match] all day in school,” said junior outside hitter Maggie Uhwat, who led the Rockets with 12 kills.

“We know they’re a good team. We know they’re going to get their points. ... I didn’t know much about [Woodstock North senior Katie] Wickersheim on the outside, and she was incredible in the first game. She’s really good. We just had to keep pushing and making smart shots.”

After trailing 19-8 in the first set, Richmond-Burton (9-4, 3-0 KRC) slowly started to to find its rhythm and cut North’s lead to 23-20. Although the Rockets didn’t complete the first-set comeback, that’s when things started to turn in their favor.

“Before, we were kind of passing all over, causing [setter] Alex [Hopp] to really have to run,” Kamholz said. “We just went back to a couple of basic plays until we finally got a little bit of comfort, then we started branching out on some slides. We knew [Woodstock North setter] Kylie [Schulze] dumped a lot, so we kept on eye on those things.

“We knew their outsides play big. We got them out of rhythm a little bit. [North] really never gives up.”

Kamholz said Uhwat and senior libero Lyndsay Regnier both played a big role in helping turn things around. Regnier led the team with 12 digs.

“We just had to focus on getting excited after every little point no matter what,” Regnier said. “We talked more, and we definitely improved our serving. That’s our first attack, serving low and hard. We just tried to focus on that. We focused on getting the ball to [Hopp] so our hitters could have a better chance of getting the momentum back for us.”

Sophomore outside hitter Elissa Furlan came up big in the second set and was second on the Rockets with 10 kills. Hopp had 18 assists, and Kaitlyn Lehecka added three kills and three blocks. R-B never trailed in the third set.

Thunder coach Eric Schulze felt his team’s lack of size started show as the match went on.

“We put a lot of pressure on our two outsides to go out and make a lot of plays for us, and we weren’t able to sustain that,” Eric Schulze said. “We came out in the first set firing and put a lot of pressure on [R-B]. As the match got tighter, we haven’t been in a lot those, I thought some of our players, the pressure got to them a little bit. They started pulling off a little bit, swinging easy.

“Once Richmond was able to get in system, we didn’t have the matchups to combat their offense.”

Senior setter Kylie Schulze, a Loyola commit, led North (12-1, 2-1) with 19 assists, 14 digs, six kills, two aces and two blocks. Wickersheim had 11 kills, eight digs and two blocks, and Lexi Hansen added 10 kills. Devynn Schulze had 11 digs.

Uhwat thought Wednesday’s win was a big statement for the Rockets.

“I believe we can be the best,” Uhwat said. “Beating them and this being their first loss feels awesome.”