Sterling volleyball wraps up conference play with sweep of Alleman

STERLING – Sterling’s defense helped lead to offense in Tuesday night’s home win over Alleman. The last time Sterling played Alleman almost a month ago, it went three sets, each separated by two or three points.

The Golden Warriors have improved since then.

Sterling swept Alleman 25-18, 25-16 to improve to 20-9 and finish 7-7 in Western Big 6 Conference play.

“The way we played tonight I think shows a little bit of the evolution that we’ve had since then,” Sterling coach Dale Dykeman said. “We’ve been down a little bit the last few matches that we’ve played. Not quite executing at a level we need to, and tonight that was different.

“We forced tempo. We were able to play the game that I envision that we should be playing.”

The Golden Warriors played together, led by 13 kills from senior Carley Sullivan. Delali Amankwa added 23 assists to extend her school career record to 2,127 ahead of Thursday’s senior night season finale against Mendota.

Dykeman said getting a number of deflections in the front row helped.

“We haven’t had a lot of blocks,” he said, noting the importance of getting extra touches on defense. “That allowed Carley and the hitters to have better swings, so it all runs together.

“Defense leads to offense. The front row defense, back row defense, I thought stepped up and did a nice job, which then is why you saw a better offensive performance.”

Sterling had 29 kills and five aces as a team in the win. Nia Harris had four kills, and Macy Anderson led the team with nine digs and had an ace. Alasia Harris-Rascon had tow aces and six digs.

Ashley Wood led Alleman with six kills.

Sterling also bounced back from Tuesday’s 25-14, 25-17 loss to La Salle-Peru on Tuesday. L-P is the No. 1 seed in the Class 3A Dixon Regional. Sterling and L-P could meet again in the regional final if both win in the semifinals.

“We’re just all together playing better as a team and being more cohesive,” Sullivan said, “and overall just a lot better throughout the past few weeks.”

It’s been an up-and-down ride through the conference slate for Sterling, with a number of close losses to teams at the top along with challenges against the scrappy teams toward the bottom.

Sechrest says having trust in teammates has been key to having success.

“If we’re struggling with a pass, just giving them confidence, helping pick them up, and be like, ‘You’re going to get the next ball,’” she said. “Just trusting each other, honestly.”

Now with one match left until the postseason, Sechrest hopes the team can savor its remaining time together.

“Obviously, everybody wants to go far, but coming together and just having these moments together,” she said. “Our team’s pretty close, we share a lot of good memories. ... Just being able to enjoy our moments together and not taking these games for granted.”

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