Deerfield's late surge stuns Waukegan

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DEERFIELD -- Waukegan High's girls volleyball team was within six points of posting a comeback victory over host Deerfield here Thursday in an IHSA Class 4A regional semifinal.

But those six points proved to elusive.

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs held a 19-10 advantage in the third and deciding game against the 10th-seeded Warriors and appeared on their way to a berth in Saturday's regional title match.

That's when Deerfield (20-14) tallied 15 of the next 16 points to pull out a 25-21, 24-26, 25-20 victory.

"Anytime you need just six points to win a game and the other team needs 15, you should be able to find a way to win it," said a dejected Waukegan coach Rachel Wiatrowski. "It comes down to either we thought the match was already over or we didn't have the confidence to step up and win it.

"Either way, it's not the way we wanted to end our season."

Against solid teams this season, Waukegan has had trouble defensively, and and Thursday's contest was no different.

Deerfield ripped off service runs of seven and six points to erase the 19-10 deficit in the third game with help from Waukegan's poor passing and the hitting of the Warriors' Taylor Stanfel (8 kills) and Kelly Tedeschi (6 kills).

"We've worked hard as the season has gone along on our hitting," said Deerfield coach Michelle Judas. "Those improvements paid off for us."

When Waukegan was in panic mode late in Game 3, the Warriors were able to scramble for key points on balls which weren't necessarily marked to be put away in a normal fashion.

"I thought Rachel Jason and Marlee Wesselhoff really stepped up for us in the front row," said Judas. "They made some big plays for us."

Junior outside hitters Katie O'Connor (12 kills) and Sarah Angelos (9 kills) made plenty of big plays for Waukegan in the first two games, but a Deerfield hitting error accounted for the Bulldogs' lone point as they collapsed down the stretch.

Jason served up six-straight points -- including a kill on match point by Wesselhoff -- to wrap up the contest.

"I'm stunned," said Wiatrowski. "We struggled defensively and with our serve-receive, and that's what did us in."

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