CLC considers season a success

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NORMAL – When it all was said and done, the final point of the match played and the tears shed, there really wasn’t much to lament.

Crystal Lake Central’s girls volleyball team lost the Class 3A third-place match to Sycamore, 25-22, 20-25, 25-19, to finish fourth in the state finals Saturday at Redbird Arena. But still they had much to celebrate.

The Tigers had won four tournaments, shared the Fox Valley Conference Fox Division title and won regional, sectional and supersectional titles before heading to Normal and losing two matches.

It was a season Tigers coach Doug Blundy did not expect from his team when the Tigers started camp last summer, but the accomplishments made him prouder of this team than perhaps any other he’d coached.

“We got greedy,” Blundy said. “We wanted more when we came down here. But they should know how proud of them I am. If they don’t, I’ll tell them again now.”

The Tigers all were emotional after the loss, but the season, although over, hadn’t lost any of its magic despite losses to Joliet Catholic, which won a second consecutive state title Saturday, and Sycamore, which added another third-place trophy in three seasons to its award case.

“I can definitely say that if I had a choice to be on any of the teams that are down here right now, I wouldn’t pick another one,” senior libero Julie Jeziorowski said. “We worked so hard just to get here. I’m so glad we were here.”

“... I’m more proud of this team than any other one,” Blundy added, “because of the people we have on this one.”

Central played from behind for most of the first set, taking a brief lead, 15-13, but quickly surrendering it because of errors.

Hitting and serving errors plagued Central (37-5) all weekend and the offense didn’t click consistently. Part of the problem undoubtedly was the Tigers’ opponents, but some of it was unforced errors.

“Every time we got within two or three points [in the third set], we either did something to give them a point or their offense earned one,” Blundy said.

Central played a solid second set, taking as much as a seven-point lead, 13-6, behind three kills from junior Tara Weber, two from sophomore Amelia Anderson and three Sycamore errors.

Sycamore later cut the Tigers’ lead to three, 17-14, but Central continued to roll. The Spartans tried to take over again, trimming the Tigers’ lead to two, 21-19, but Anderson (10 kills) came up with another kill and Lindsay Anderson (11 kills) and Tracy Friel (31 assists) had two blocks kills to take a 24-19 advantage.

A Sycamore error gave the Tigers their final point.

Central fell into a hole, 8-1, in the third set and never recovered. Sycamore fed the ball consistently to middle hitter Evyn McCoy (nine kills), who hurt the Tigers at the net.

“It’s very possible that we played like we can while we were down here and we played above our potential all year long,” Blundy said. “But I can’t say for sure because these are better teams. They have a way of taking advantage of your weaknesses. When you can’t do some of the stuff you’ve been able to during other matches, it gets tough.”