Schools
Girls Volleyball: Lemont Rallies to Stun Oak Forest, Create Logjam at Top of Conference Standings
Following a timeout by coach Chris Zogata, Lemont fought back after losing the first game for a thrilling 18-25, 25-23, 25-21 girls volleyball victory at Oak Forest on Thursday night.
Lemont girls volleyball coach Chris Zogata called a timeout midway through the second game and didn’t say a word. Zogata’s team already was down a game and trailing in the middle of Game 2, on the verge of losing a critical South Suburban Conference match Thursday night on the road to Oak Forest.
But Zogata wanted her young team to correct the mistakes without the help of the coaching staff. And the Indians (15-11, 8-1) responded in a big way.
Led by the consistent hitting of senior Emily Brown, Lemont rallied for an 18-25, 25-23, 25-21 victory and regained control of the South Suburban Conference race.
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“I let them figure it out," Zogata said. "They need to start thinking out on the court, thinking about what they need to do. (Coaches) started feeling like broken records, so I didn’t say much. And they knew what they had to do and they did it.”
While both teams are typically slow starters, it was Oak Forest (12-9, 8-1) that came out and played with energy, controlling the tempo and jumping out to an early 13-6 lead in Game 1 after an ace from senior libero Jill Krygowski.
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The Bengals continued to play mistake-free volleyball, committing only four hitting errors in the first game. Lemont scored only five points on serve and one on a kill from senior Stephanie Dagenais and gave the host Bengals the first game.
Oak Forest carried that momentum into the start of the second game, jumping out to an 11-4 lead. But after Zogata’s timeout, Lemont started to look like the team that was the two-time defending conference champions and Oak Forest tightened up.
Lemont slowly chipped away at the Bengals' seven-point lead and tied it at 18-18 on an ace from setter Kathy Balnius. Brown, who had nine kills in Game 2, put one down to give Lemont a chance at game point and a service error from Oak Forest two points later evened the match.
“Everybody wanted to make the play, and we probably put a little more pressure on ourselves than we needed to,” Oak Forest coach Amanda Brown said. “It’s obviously a big stage. It’s a game that we anticipate all season long. And, as they saw it slipping a little bit, I think people pressed a little bit too hard trying to do too much.”
Lemont won eight of the first 10 points in Game 3 and made the lead hold up. The mistake-free volleyball that Oak Forest played in Game 1 turned into a myriad of hitting errors and Lemont’s defense did a good job of getting a number of touches and blocks on Bengal outside hitter Gina Ryan.
Fittingly, it was Emily Brown whose kill off the left side gave Lemont the come-from-behind victory.
“In that third (game), it’s usually about the momentum and they had it most definitely coming in,” the Bengals' Amanda Brown said. “We got down early, and I think we just went tit-for-tat the rest of the way and the first five points of the game made it what it was.”
Emily Brown led Lemont with 17 kills. Ryan also had 17 kills and Kate Zickus finished with 36 assists for Oak Forest.
The win leaves both teams with one loss in conference, but Lemont now holds the tiebreaker.
“(Oak Forest) is a team that we are extremely concerned about all the time,” Zogata said. “Especially coming here, we know their fans are going to be into it and this is a hard atmosphere to play in.”
