By Samantha Payton
The Lady Knights volleyball team started the season out strong with a record of 5-2.
“We’ve been working hard and trying to cover a lot of things to get started with our season,” head coach Todd Weimer said.
During the first game against Montini at the Wheaton North Tournament on August 22, the girls experienced some first game jitters. The team lost in two games with scores of 25-14 and 25-21.
“It was a frustrating match because I thought we could have beaten them,” Weimer said.
The team managed to bounce back with a strong win in their match against Oak Forest. Taking only two games to run away with the victory, with scores of 25-16 and 25-14.
“The girls were playing loose and playing phenomenal. I was really pleased to see how forceful the girls were on the court and their ability to really play at this point of the season,” Weimer said.
The team ended the tournament with a record of 3-2. This was enough to get fifth place out of a total of 12 teams.
Senior Ashley Prost had an exceptional performance with 26 kills as well as 21 digs to give the team a powerful advance. Senior Lauren Banbury contributed 15 kills of her own, and sophomore Ellie Dunn was not too far behind with 11.
“We play together like a team and it’s a lot of fun because we all get along super well. I think that we could have done better in the tournament. There were some bright spots but there was definitely a lot of things we found out we need to work on. I think that we all have our jitters out and will do a lot better after that,” Prost said.
In their match against Hinkley Big Rock, the Lady Knights produced some pretty significant numbers. As a team they made the new team high of nine aces. Individually, junior Jenny Lubic had an outstanding 22 assists, two aces and five digs. Dunn also contributed with some decent numbers with 11 kills, one ace as well as four digs.
“The game against Hinkley Big Rock went well. They gave us different types of challenges that we can take into our upcoming games. We did well pushing to the end! The only thing I thought we could improve was cheering more!” Banbury said.
The team is really trying to focus and prepare for their future matches, according to Weimer. They are anxiously awaiting showdowns against Morris, DeKalb and Yorkville. The Lady Knights suffered losses from all three of these teams last year.
To prepare, the team works on their weaknesses and they pinpoint other teams strengths, Prost said.
According to Banbury, the team also studies the tendencies of the other teams and practice techniques to stop them.
“We are constantly working on everything to improve our overall skills and teamwork,” Weimer said. “We really want to be aggressive across the board.”
According to Banbury, the team’s goal is to win conference. Within that goal, they have smaller goals to help them get there.
“I have great faith in our season, with these hard working girls and the game we are able to play, we can go far!” she said.
The Lady Knights’ next match is tonight at 6:00 PM against the Hubs from Rochelle Township High School.
