Sycamore rallies, Crystal Lake Central cruises

Updated: October 25, 2011 10:32PM

Crystal Lake Central showed why it is the top seed at the Class 3A Sycamore Regional semifinals on Tuesday night. While the host Spartans showed incredible heart and perseverance.

The Tigers cruised to 25-6, 25-11 win over fourth-seeded Hampshire to advance to Thursday’s championship game. They will face third-seeded Sycamore, which battled back from the brink of elimination to defeat second-seeded Burlington Central 25-19, 22-25, 29-27.

In the thrilling third game, the Spartans trailed 25-24, 26-25, and 27-26, but rallied to tie the score each time. First on a block tip from freshman Mattie Hayes. Then the next two times on kills from Brittany Huber.

Sycamore finally took the lead 28-27 when Christina Dailey drilled a spike from the left side. Ellyn Heegaard put the finishing touches on the exhilarating win with a block tip for the game-winner.

“We just never lost hope,” Sycamore coach Debbie Klock said. ‘‘We stuck to our game plan and kept trusting one another.

‘‘We run simulation drills all the time in practice where we are trying to come from two points down. It really teaches us how to handle pressure situations and to keep pushing right to the end.”

After dropping the first game the Rockets (21-15) rallied for a Game 2 win to even the match. Even before the three match points in Game 3, the Rockets seem to have the momentum in their favor on two separate occasions. They took a 17-13 lead only to squander it, but again pulled ahead 21-17 with help of two kills from Brenda Thasavong.

However, the Spartans rallied to score five consecutive points to take a 23-22 lead. Central trailed 24-23 after an ace by the Spartans Hannah Knox. A kill by Lexi Bouza kept the Rockets alive and tied the score at 24-24. A tip kill by Sydney Sand put the Rockets in a position to win as they went ahead 25-24. Sand and Laura Thompson pulled the Rockets to within a point of victory two more times, but they could not close the deal.

“It was a heartbreaker,” Central coach Marv Leavitt said. “There were just so many opportunities to put it away and we just couldn’t. You have to give Sycamore a lot of credit for battling back like that. It will be a tough loss to get over but it doesn’t take away from what we have accomplished this season.”

Senior Kaitlyn O’Reilly returned from a knee injury suffered in the second week of the regular season and finished with 30 assists and seven kills.

Bouza led Central with 12 kills, Sand added 10 kills and Sam Bohne had 25 digs.

Dailey had a team-high 10 kills for Sycamore, and Ratasha Garbes added 25 assists.

In the second semifinal, Crystal Lake Central (30-6) dominated from the start, jumping out to a 9-1 lead.

Kassi Dvoracek later served for 12 straight points to continue the rout. Dvoracek also had a 10 point service run in Game 2 as the Tigers turned a 9-8 advantage into a 20-8 lead.

Lauren Laverenz dominated at the net for the Tigers with eight kills and three blocks. Victoria Day added seven kills, and and Natalia Ricca had 19 assists.

“The last couple weeks we have struggled with getting off to slow starts,” Crystal Lake Central coach Lisa Reddish said. “So our focus tonight was to get off to a fast start. That was about as good of a start as you can wish for.”

“Not taking away anything from Central because they are a phenomenal team, Hampshire coach Karen Whitehouse said. “But I think just about anybody could have beat us tonight the way we played.

‘‘We just came in intimidated from the start and just never got any confidence going. It was still a good learning season for us and with three freshman staters returning there’s a lot to build on.”

Hampshire finished the season 11-26.

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