Kaneland’s losing streak reaches six

Updated: October 11, 2011 9:32PM

After Tuesday’s 25-21, 25-21 win put DeKalb in the driver’s seat in the Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference title chase, Kaneland coach Todd Weimer offered up some fitting analysis.

“It was kind of like DeKalb was driving a ’69 Chevy with a 454 engine and we were putt-putting along in a Geo,” he said. “What did those have, a three- or four-cylinder engine? It was like we were struggling on 81 octane gasoline and they were running on nitrous fuel.

“We started in the hole in both games, but at least we had the courage to fight back and get ourselves in position to battle for the win.”

A 7-0 DeKalb run put the Knights in a 12-5 hole early in the opening set. And after jumping to a 3-0 start in the second, the Barbs scored nine of the next 12 points for a 12-3 lead.

“Kaneland made some really good adjustments both offensively and defensively with their block,” said DeKalb coach Stephanie Gooden, whose team climbs to 22-4 overall and 6-1 in the league with matches against Rochelle, Yorkville and Morris remaining.

Morris, the only team to beat DeKalb, has two league losses.

Kaneland, which started the season 15-4, has fallen on hard times. The Knights have now lost six straight and stand 15-10 overall and 4-3 in the league after starting 4-1. Kaneland and Yorkville have wins over Morris.

“It’s the strongest part of our schedule,” said Weimer, whose club lost three matches to strong Iowa teams last weekend in Bettendorf. “This is kinda like the playoffs in the regular season. It replicates the kind of competition we’ll face. The players have to figure out that we’ve got to stick together, like a family does during hard times.”

Kaneland used a 6-0 run of its own in the opener to force a 19-19 tie and a 5-0 run in the second set to pull within 22-20, but in both, DeKalb notched the game-winners on Knight hitting errors.

It capped Kaneland’s Volley for the Cure night that featured a shirt sale and raffle with all the money raised going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Arizona-bound senior Emily Bemis led DeKalb with eight kills, two blocks and 12 digs. Sophomore Courtney Bemis added five kills and six blocks and Kendall Baum added five kills. Madison Lord had 16 assists and McKenna Teboda 15 assists.

Katy Dudzinski had five blocks and two kills for the Knights, who got three kills each from Grace Fabrizius and Lauren Banbury and two blocks and two kills from Keri Groen.

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