Considering the fact there are only 4 seniors on the Evanston volleyball roster this year, the Wildkits might have to look elsewhere for the leadership necessary to reverse the program’s fortunes in 2023.
Lina Hauser and Isa De Los Reyes, a couple of juniors, stepped up into that role in Monday’s season opener at Maine East.
After threatening to combine to set a new Illinois High School Association state record for missed serves in a single match, the Wildkits cleaned up their act before the Blue Demons did and scored a 23-25, 25-22, 25-16 victory in front of a raucous crowd in Park Ridge.
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The IHSA doesn’t really keep that kind of negative record. But whether it was rust, or nerves, or playing in front of an unexpectedly large number of (mostly teenage) spectators for a season opener that blew off some vocal steam following the first week of school, the two teams teamed up for a total of 30 missed serves.
Some sailed long, most sailed into the net. East misfired on 18 attempts and those points added up for the winners in the 2-hour match.
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“If not for the fact we missed most of ours early, we probably would have won in two sets,” said Evanston second-year head coach Paris McFall. “And yes, I’ve seen that many missed serves in club play. I thought a lot of our girls were stiff coming in and there were a lot of nerves. They were afraid to go out there and make a mistake.
“But once they started playing to their level and got more relaxed, the girls handled their business. I couldn’t be happier with how they played. The girls did a nice job.”
All those misfires made it difficult for either side to find a flow on offense. Evanston’s kill statistics included 6 apiece from Gillian Colledge and Kylie O’Connor, plus 4 from Sarah Skey.
More significant than those numbers was the play of setter Hauser and libero De Los Reyes. De Los Reyes, part of a strong libero unit that also includes junior Audrey Low and Cat De Los Reyes, Isa’s older sister, didn’t play in the first set and was part of a new lineup that featured Greer Rutter, Colledge, Skey, Frankie Taylor, sophomore Casey McDermott and Hauser.
That group broke out to a quick 5-1 advantage and forced the host team to play catchup from there. The Blue Demons did tie the score at 12 all, and from there the lead changed hands four times before Evanston emerged with the win.
Maine East’s Siobhan Kelly launched a serve into the net to pull the Kits to a 20-20 tie, and they rattled off the next three points as Colledge came alive after a slow start to score on a middle hit, a block for a point, and a tip.
She also scored the 24th point and McDermott, the daughter of assistant coach Mike McDermott, finished things off in style with an ace serve.
The Wildkits pulled away gradually in the third set, with the Colledge-McDermott combination --- a kill in the middle and an ace serve --- providing a 17-12 advantage that was too much for the losers to overcome.
“The girls understood that we weren’t playing clean in that first set,” McFall pointed out. “We talked a lot about leaning on Lina this year and I thought she really stepped up at that point. She commanded the floor, set well, and she was aggressive when she needed to be (3 kills). And when we made those switches and put in the subs, they really handled it well and we took things back in our control.
“This is a really good group of liberos. When Isa came in I thought she brought a strong voice out there and you could really hear her communicating with the others. That’s what allowed us to get checked in as a team.
“Casey did a nice job serving, too, after a couple of misses early. We always tell the girls that we have to go plus-2 as a server (at least 2 successful serves). If you do that, the odds are you’ll win that game.”
The Wildkits will resume action on the road Tuesday at Saint Viator.
