Early on in Monday night’s match against Hoffman Estates, the Kits held the momentum.
Staying in front throughout, Evanston took the first set as it attempted to break its six-game losing streak. However, after losing the last two sets of the night by a total of five points, the Kits fell to the Hawks, 25-19, 23-25, 22-25.
“We think working hard for one set is good enough and when we go down in those sets, we have to work twice as hard to get back in. That’s never where you want to be,” head coach Paris McFall stated. “We never want to have to overwork, but that’s where we are. We can’t allow one set or one string of points to get away from us because that is all it takes for us to go down on a spiral.”
The first set was a close one, but the Kits managed to lead the scoreboard for the majority of the set. Evanston got up to a multiple point lead of 15-12 midway through the set. From there on, the Kits continued to get kill after kill by juniors Kylie O’Connor and Gillian Colledge, leaving the Hawks trailing going into the second set.
“Our energy throughout the game was great and we were having a pretty good side out percentage when the other team had the ball,” says Colledge.
The team started the second set again in the lead, dominating the Hawks who failed to create a good defensive strategy against the Kits’ serve. However, the Kits lost their lead late in the set, earning the Hawks a 25-23 set victory, setting up a deciding third set.
As the siren blared, signaling the start of the third act, the tension was high. Sweat dripped from the athletes, and the stands were loud, led by cheerleading from the ETHS JV team. With the deciding set in front of them, the Kits looked to break their losing streak and gain some confidence going into their upcoming games.
The set started off with points in close range, but the Kits were able to go up 11-8 following a couple of errors by the Hawks, and a kill from senior Margot Van Nice. Fans were on the edge of their seats as both teams held strong and remained close throughout the set. But with the Hawks up 24-22, a final kill put an end to Evanston’s dreams after their hot start.
“There’s some things that we missed that we should have had. I’m looking for players that are just going to be game-time players, people that want to come in, people that make sure that they’re ready to go,” McFall said. “We just weren’t ready on both ends.”
The biggest factor to the Kits’ success is not only what happens on the court, but what happens off the court as well.
“We were very one dimensional. And what we were doing on the court reflected what we were doing on the bench,” McFall said.
“As a team, we discussed how we need to make all of our good plays worthwhile by being able to finish the matches strongly and take the win,” Colledge stated. “We have seven more games this week, so hopefully we will be able to stay strong and achieve that together.”
The Kits will head to Deerfield in a CSL match on Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 6:00 p.m..
