“We’re playing our best volleyball right now.”
Every coach in every sport wants to be able to utter those words before the state playoffs arrive, and South Elgin coach Joni Plach was lucky enough to say that Thursday.
Plach’s Storm dispatched Upstate Eight rival Larkin 25-11, 25-18 and looked ready for the postseason in doing so. After posting eight digs, three blocks, and three kills, all-around contributor Katie Innis agreed that her team’s effort was worthy of its coach’s praise.
“In the first match we really executed on our hits, placed the ball where the holes were, and we’ve really improved in how far we’ve come,” Innis said. “Our serve-receive wasn’t very good to start the season, but it’s much better now. And our blocking got a lot better, too.”
South Elgin (15-11-1) controlled Game 1, tucking it into the night’s win column on a kill by Renee Rush.
Larkin (10-24) kept things closer in Game 2 but never played up to coach Henry Graack’s expectations. As the No. 10 seed of this year’s Class 4A Maine East Sectional, Larkin took second-seeded Schaumburg to three games on Saturday. But the Royals were lacking all night against 14th-seeded South Elgin.
“Effort,” Larkin coach Henry Graack said. “That was the biggest think lacking, but we didn’t anticipate well what was going on on the other side of the court, either. It was like we were screened from what was happening on the other side of the net, and had to blindly play the ball coming over the net.
“Missed serves and hitting errors didn’t help us, either.”
The Royals cut the Storm’s lead to 13-9 in Game 2 but South Elgin weathered Larkin’s surge and led 23-15 on an ace from Phoebe Duncan before closing it out.
April McGhee was a bright spot for Larkin, moving well in posting nine digs and a 2.16 serve-receive rating, but afterward those numbers were little comfort to the sophomore libero.
“Our energy wasn’t there and our offense could have been more aggressive,” McGhee said. “We have to push ourselves in practice more, our attitude has to get better, and we need to play more aggressive.”
Rush had four kills, six assists, and five digs, and Casie Swanson finished with six assists for the Storm.
“Renee Rush is playing some of her best volleyball right now,” Plach said. “She always sets well for us and now she’s hitting well, too, and playing good defense. And Katie Innis has always been a very solid player for us. She’s been our most stable player, the whole year.”
