Volleyball: Rock Falls beats Yorkville Christian with front-row dominance, aggressive serves

ROCK FALLS – The Rock Falls Rockets came out firing in Thursday’s nonconference volleyball match against the Yorkville Christian Mustangs.

A 10-3 run quickly turned into a 25-9 first-set win. It was smooth sailing from there, as the Rockets prevailed 25-9, 25-14 at Tabor Gym.

Senior setter Denali Stonitsch served one of her five aces for a 2-1 Rockets’ lead in the first set. That sparked a 7-0 run for Rock Falls.

“I think serving aggressively and just overcommunicating. We wanted to work on things that we’ve worked on in practice, because we haven’t played since Saturday,” Rock Falls senior outside hitter Claire Bickett said. “We’ve been trying to run our middles more, and I think getting everybody involved, and like I said, serving hard at the service line is what got us off to that fast start.”

The Rockets embarked on another 7-0 run after the Mustangs’ Ella Creek served an ace to get within 14-7. Junior setter Kacie Witherow slammed a kill to start it off, then senior defensive specialist Zoe Henson served back-to-back aces, and Bickett slammed back-to-back kills for a 21-7 lead. Senior outside hitter Nicolette Udell hammered three straight kills after a Yorkville Christian serving error to close the first set.

“I believe it was our serves, and we were just killing the ball; they were almost afraid of us, so I feel like that definitely helped,” Stonitsch said. “I feel like our setter-hitter connection worked pretty well. We were trying to run a faster offense because it was just one of those games where it would’ve been better that way for blockers not to go slow, but I feel like we definitely had a good setter-hitter connection.”

Rock Falls served seven of its 12 aces in the second set.

Udell served two aces around a Mustangs hitting error for a 4-1 second-set lead, then senior defensive specialist Sophia Moeller served another ace, and Bickett slammed three kills to stretch the margin to 12-5.

The Mustangs rallied to within 16-13, as Kai Thompson hammered two kills and Rock Falls made a few hitting errors, but it quickly recovered. A 9-1 run ended the match. Stonitsch served three more aces, and Udell crushed three more kills to fuel the nine-point run.

“I thought [the setter-hitter connection] was very good. That’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Bickett said. “We’ve really been doing well defensively. Coach always works us hard on defense, so we’re finally getting our offense to come around knowing that we’ve got our defense locked.”

Udell totaled 11 kills, two aces and two blocks, Stonitsch had 12 assists and five aces, and Bickett tallied seven kills and four digs.

Thompson had five kills and Ellie Stewart added three kills for Yorkville Christian.