Girls Volleyball: Quite a feat for Sandburg against Lockport
By Tony Baranek tbaranek@southtownstar.com September 27, 2012 10:40PM
Kendall Riechman, of Sandburg, digs out a kill against Lockport at Carl Sandburg, Sunday, September 27th, 2012 in Orland Park, IL. | Gary Middendorf~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: October 29, 2012 6:52AM
It was pretty impossible for Sandburg senior Paige Bendell to put her best foot forward in Thursday’s SouthWest Suburban Blue match against visiting Lockport.
Both of them were hurting.
Her serving arm, however, was just fine. It turned out to be quite a momentum turner.
Stung by a tough Set 1 loss, Bendell went to the line to start Set 2. By the time she was done she’d landed four aces, Sandburg had eight points, and the momentum had shifted in a monstrous fashion.
“That was probably one of the best games I’ve ever served,” a smiling Bendell said after Sandburg’s 24-26, 25-6, 25-16 victory. “It’s always great to beat Lockport. We respect their team a lot.”
Bendell finished with six aces, six kills and 16 assists. Sami Knight (13 assists), Dakota Hampton (15 kills, 12 digs), Kristy Theisen (10 kills), Kendall Reichman (10 digs) and Julia Borschel (6 kills) also led the No. 6 Eagles (14-5, 1-0).
Kayla Pfeiffer had six kills and seven digs, MacKenzie Wasowicz six kills, Katie Tabisz 11 assists, six digs and four kills, Katie Dugan eight digs and Aubrey Ficek four kills for No. 4 Lockport (13-5, 0-1).
Bendell has been battling ankle injuries since the start of the season.
“In the McAuley match at (the) Rich East (Invite) I rolled my right ankle. Earlier in the season I rolled my left ankle right before the Lyons quad. And I have an in-grown toenail on my left foot, too. So, yeah, it feels good,” she said, laughing.
No one was laughing on the Sandburg side after Set 1 on Thursday. Lockport, trailing by a short margin most of the way, finally made a late push to turn a 23-20 deficit into a 24-23 lead, the last point coming on a kill by Tabisz. Sandburg tied it back up on a Hampton spike, but Gabby Martinez went back-to-back with a kill and a block to win it for the Porters.
“We just felt we played really sloppy the first game and we really wanted to turn it around,” Bendell said. “I thought that if I started out serving strong it would give our team a lot of momentum. We just rolled from there.”
Bendell’s serves shanked off Lockport arms at a dizzying pace. The 8-0 run would be followed by streaks of 6-0 and 7-0. After a kill by Theisen to start Set 3, Bendell again went to the line and scored five more service points, two for aces. Lockport got back to within two points on two occasions, but went down for the count via a 7-0 Sandburg run to end it.
“I really don’t have any words for what happened in Game 2,” Lockport coach Erika Lange said. “I couldn’t imagine anything else possibly going wrong. And I have no explanation for it.
“But our kids easily could have rolled over and died after the start to Game 3, but they continued to battle. I’m proud of them for that. But we dug ourselves too many holes.”
