Huntley rebounds to beat Woodstock North

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HUNTLEY – The match was rather quiet and businesslike, but Huntley’s volleyball team had things it needed to accomplish Tuesday night.

The Red Raiders, fresh off a 4-1 showing at the Plainfield North Tournament last weekend, found glitches in their system they wanted to straighten out. Given the high expectations coach Michelle Jakubowski has set for this season, the players knew they needed to respond to a three-set loss against Hinsdale South on Saturday with a solid showing Tuesday against Woodstock North in a Fox Valley Conference crossover.

The necessary repairs didn’t take long, and with the Raiders clicking on all cylinders in a 25-9, 25-11 win against the Thunder, Jakubowski picked up the 300th victory of her 15-year career as a head coach.

In short, it was business as usual for a team intent on adding another banner to the wall inside the gym.

“This weekend was a big confidence boost for us,” junior libero Amy Dion said. “I don’t think we realized what we were capable of doing, and now that we know what we should have done against Hinsdale South, we came out and had a hard practice [Monday] where we broke it all down. We were fixing it today.”

Huntley (6-1 overall) had trouble over the weekend getting its kills in the spots they needed to be, and although the serving and passing were sound, the offense wasn’t where Jakubowski wanted it.

With a roster of veteran hitters including Sam Boesch (six kills), Ashley Smith, Jaina Jackson and Kadie Lowery (four kills), timid play and inaccurate hitting was a trend Jakubowski wanted to nip right away.

She was able to clear her bench Tuesday as the Thunder (0-2) struggled with their serve-receive and against Huntley’s defense, led by Dion who picked up seven digs.

“We’re getting there,” Boesch said. “We’re working our way to the top of our game. We needed to get the emotional part of our game down and ... we needed to work on our free ball plays. We needed to start terminating the ball on the first opportunity we got, and we did a better job of that tonight.”

“I think we played at a high level tonight,” Jakubowski said.

“Other than missing a few serves here and there, we did what we needed to do and we played aggressively.”

Jakubowski coached at Winnebago and Lake Zurich before coming to Huntley, where she is in her fifth season. She led the Bears to two supersectional appearances and has led the Raiders to two consecutive IHSA Class 4A sectional finals, including last fall when the Raiders lost to eventual state champion Cary-Grove to finish 29-10 overall. The team is trying to advance past the sectional round of the postseason this year and hang another state finals banner inside the gym next to the other seven.

If anyone can get them there, Dion is certain it’s Jakubowski.

“She’s amazing,” Dion said. “She works us so hard and ... when we’re on the court it’s all business. No messing around, we’re focused and that’s because of her. She’s an awesome coach.”