Tough competition

Tonight the girls faced their toughest challenge to date, except for maybe Kankakee Valley in the first game of the year. Heritage Christian High gave the girls everything they could handle, but eventually fell to Calvary 25-21, 25-15, 25-22.

In the first game, after a quick start, Calvary starting playing at the level they needed to win the last few games. This was not good enough tonight. After a big hit by Jessi Stas, a big hit by Faith, and an ace by Taylor, Calvary led 3-0. The girls then stopped playing defense, and soon it was 7-7. Then it was 11-7 Heritage. The Patriots got three back to pull within one, then the defense went south again and Heritage jumped out to a 19-11 lead. At this point, the defense got a little better, and the hitting got real good. They outscored Heritage 14-2 from that point and won the first game 25-21.

The Patriots started slowly in the second, staying even with Heritage until they regained their level from the end of the first game. They relentlessly pulled away until they led 24-13. Then after a service error and another point scored by Heritage, Calvary finished it off for a final of 25-15.

The third game saw another slow start by Calvary. They were down 4-2 this time before they woke up. Again good offense and good-enough defense was what provided the advantage for Calvary. An 11-3 run put Calvary on top 13-7. The defense and the decision making faltered for Calvary for a stretch, allowing Heritage to catch up at 14. The Patriots pulled out again to a 19-15 lead, and again allowed Heritage to catch up at 19. Calary got the next three and maintained the lead to finish the match, 25-22. Some shaky reffing in this game caused annoyance for both sides of the contest, but did not really change the outcome of the game.

Calvary is now 8-0 on the year. The JV also won, beating the recently-crowned champion of the Calvary JV tournament 25-21, 25-16. The difference in the game was the serving. Calvary has some very good servers on the JV team, and Heritage had trouble returning them. The rest of the JV's game was much better than it was in the brackets of the tournament - if they had played this well Saturday, they might have won the tourney. The JHb team lost in two and the JHa team defeated Protestant Reformed 25-24, 25-21.

The next game is this Friday against Quentin Road up in Lake Zurich. Times and maps are in the schedule at the bottom of the page. See you there.