Girls volleyball: La Salle-Peru rallies early, pulls away from Rock Falls

ROCK FALLS – After the host team started hot Wednesday night, the visitors turned things around and took control.

Rock Falls jumped out to an early lead in the opening set, but La Salle-Peru used a big run to turn the tide in a 25-22, 25-20 nonconference win at Tabor Gym.

“I think at first, we weren’t talking as much. But once we started getting kills and had some really good swings, I think that the momentum started to carry over for us,” sophomore hitter Aubrey Duttlinger said. “We’re really good as a team trying to calm each other down and just making those simple touches and simple plays, and that turned things around for us tonight.”

[ Photos from LaSalle-Peru at Rock Falls volleyball ]

The Rockets (1-3) jumped out to a 10-3 lead to start the match, getting kills from Ari Reyna, Kacie Witherow and Kaltrina Lecaj, a block from Kayla Hackbarth, and aces from Isela Valdivia and Witherow.

But Duttlinger’s second kill of the set stopped that initial surge, and she added three more spikes in a nine-point service run by Carley Garretson. Kelsey Frederick stuffed a block and Garretson served an ace in the spurt as the Cavaliers (8-0) turned a seven-point deficit into a 13-10 lead.

“We always come out and we like to give them our best shot right away,” Rock Falls coach Jolene Bickett said. “But what I’ve been telling them the last two weeks, our highs are high and our lows are low, and it’s all about working through things. It’s a mental game; you’re going to have your lulls, but we are having a very hard time responding, finding the right communication to minimize our mistakes. I always tell them they have to have a short-term memory, move on to the next ball.”

Kills by Lilly Betts and Addison Miller, an ace by Zoey Schueler, and an L-P error gave Rock Falls the lead again at 16-15, but an ace by Frederick and a kill by Ava Currie after two Rocket errors put the Cavs back in front.

An ace by Emma Jereb and another kill by Currie put L-P at set point, but four straight hitting errors brought the Rockets back within 24-22. A final kill from Currie closed out the set.

“I think that we are all playing well together. Even though it’s our first few games, we’re really coming together as a team,” Frederick said. “I feel like at the beginning, in preseason practice, it was a little shaky because we had so many new people coming in. We didn’t know how things were going to land with so many new underclassmen, but I feel like it’s really come together. We all got to know each other, and it really helps us play as a team on the court.”

L-P led 3-2 in the second set after back-to-back aces by the Cavs’ Kalli Ware and a pair of blocks by the Rockets’ Hackbarth, then kills by Rock Falls’ Witherow and Lecaj tied the set 4-4. But a Frederick kill gave the Cavs the lead, and they slowly pulled away from there.

A kill by Lecaj and an ace from Carolyn Masini cut Rock Falls’ deficit to 18-15, but the Cavs answered with a block by Currie and consecutive aces from Jereb for a 23-16 lead. Reyna’s kill and an ace by Elizabeth Lombardo sparked a four-point surge for the Rockets, but a kill by Currie and a Rock Falls error ended the match.

“They’re always a well-oiled machine; they play the first week of September like it’s the middle of October, just working together as a unit,” Bickett said about La Salle-Peru. “I thought our defense, we usually play a little bit better. I didn’t think that L-P was cutting shots or doing anything to trick us; they were kind of telling us exactly where they were going to hit it, and we didn’t make the reads like we normally do.”

Both teams came up with some big saves and hustle plays, and multiple players kept points alive with diving digs. But as the match wore on, more of those scramble points went the Cavs’ way.

“I feel like because we saw them making hustle plays, that kind of pushed us to match them and want to win more,” Frederick said. “For me, going through my head, I was just thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get this up, keep this point going, just help my team out.’ We all help each other out, and it helps us build momentum.”

“Our defense was outstanding, it was amazing,” Duttlinger added. “We had lots of girls moving around and making plays, and it was fun playing out there tonight.”

Duttlinger led L-P with seven kills, Frederick finished with six kills and five digs, and Currie had five kills and two blocks. Jereb dished 11 assists and served three aces, and Garretson added 12 points, five assists and four digs. Ware chipped in 12 digs, two assists and two aces.

Hackbarth had three blocks and a kill for the Rockets, and Reyna, Lecaj and Witherow each spiked three kills; Lecaj also had five digs and four assists, and Witherow added six assists and three digs. Miller had two blocks and a kill and Lombardo led the back row with 11 digs to go with nine points and two assists, while Masini added four digs and Valdivia chipped in three digs.

“I was impressed, Kayla Hackbarth gets her first varsity start and she’s moving better, getting to the right spot. We’re working on a little bit more quickness, and she was getting touches. Now we’ve just got to find the rest of it to put it together,” Bickett said. “I truly think we’ll get there, it’s just a matter of me putting girls in different spots. We have very little varsity experience, and the ones who played a little bit last year, I’m asking them to play different roles. So new coach, new roles, but we’ll get there.”