Red Raiders unable to solve Trojans in title match

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HUNTLEY -- A roaring home crowd and a tenacious effort in the second set wasn't enough for Huntley to stop Cary-Grove's well-oiled machine on Thursday night in the Huntley Class 4A Sectional final.

The Red Raiders season came to end with a 25-8, 25-17 defeat. The loss was the third of the season to the Trojans (35-4), who won the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division championship and their first sectional title since 2001.

Things got off to an especially rocky start for the Raiders in the first set as they fell behind 10-2 after a service run that included two aces by Colleen Hargrove.

Huntley (29-10) never got any traction in the set, falling 25-8. But the team remained visibly optimistic following a string of setbacks, including one instance were three Raiders collided as the ball dropped in front of them for a Cary-Grove point.

"Whatever could go wrong did go wrong," Huntley coach Michelle Jakubowski said. "We tripped over our own feet. We were hitting it out. We didn't even pass that well and then you can't give them free balls. They're going to put it down your throat (when you do that). They're a great team and they pushed us into (playing poorly)."

After an early Cary-Grove lead to open the second set, an Ashley Smith kill tied the score at 5 and signaled that Huntley wouldn't go quietly.

"We just knew we had to step it up because that wasn't us," said senior Amanda Carroll, who finished with seven assists. "We have a lot of heart, no matter what the score was."

Added Jakubowski: "To come out with that much fight in the second game and to dive for everything and to never give up, I'm real proud of them."

The Raiders defense and some miscues from Cary-Grove kept the set tight, with neither team winning back-to-back points on seven straight points heading into a 13-all tie.

Huntley stayed in the set for a little while longer, but after closing the Trojans lead to 17-16, watched Cary-Grove reel off eight of the last nine points to win the set 25-17 on a Kelly Lamberti kill.

For those graduating and those coming back next year, the tight-knit Raiders will certainly look back at the season fondly.

"It's been an amazing season," Carroll said. "I couldn't ask for a better senior season."

Added sophomore Amy Dion, who had eight digs: "We worked so hard in practice and in games. I think the underclassmen learned from that and we're going to take that into next season."

Smith had three kills.