This was the second time I have had the fortune of calling a game for the Cyclones and the first time I have called a game for the Panthers. For Dr. Pete he's made the long and difficult travel to Moraine Valley hundreds of times as he was once a Cyclone himself now living a mere hop skip and a jump from the campus. Okay it's more like a hop skip and a long jump away but you get the idea. The last time we saw the Cyclones they had just wrapped up the Skyway Conference title and had just beaten Harper College. Tonight was playoff time!
Moraine Valley came into the game with a 31-6 record and Morton College came in with a record of 7-20. In the last few weeks we have seen favored teams fail to show up and find themselves fighting to avoid an upset. That was not the case this night. The Cyclones head coach Gloria Coughlin had her team focused and ready to execute their game plan. They came out spreading the ball around and forcing the Panthers defense to spread out as well. Once that happened they were able to dissect their opponent with directional hitting. Donna Killeen and Carli Immordino had big nights and Rachel Levitt, Shannon Ott, and Bianca Hull also played very well. I want to take a moment to congratulate Rachel Levitt, Bianca Hull, Kelly Stack and Katie Yacko for being named to the all conference tournament team. In addition to that Kelly Stack was recently named the NJCAA player of the week for 10/24/2010! Rachel Levitt had that honor back in September.
While the scoreboard indicated a blowout with the Cyclones winning in three sets (25-11,25-11,25-9) it does not indicate the effort put forth by the Morton College Panthers. Missing three members from their team, the Panthers played short handed and without their starting Libero. Playing without a starting Libero is like playing basketball without your starting point guard. You may be able to get by, but the offense isn't quite the same. It's a little out of rhythm and not running full speed. That's because the starting Libero gets the first team reps and the back up has to learn another position as well. It's like that for any team at any level. Morton played with a lot of energy and a lot of desire. It just didn't show on the scoreboard. The impressive part was that there was no sign of quit on anyones face. Julene Kluba had a good match as did Cecilia Rodriquez. While she was undersized compared to Moraine Valley, she did a great job adjusting throughout the game to hit more soft shots over the double blocks she faced. Samantha Ginger also had a few big hits that resulted in kills. There were definitely signs that this Morton College team can be successful next year with about half of their roster returning. It is important that those returning bring that same effort and energy to practice and games and if that happens it's only a matter of time until the scoreboard turns to their favor. I want to wish the Panthers the best of luck throughout the rest of this school year and next season!
Meanwhile back at the hall of Justice, well the building the Cyclones play in, they get to advance to the next round of the playoffs. While it was an impressive win, there are things that can be improved upon moving forward. There were some miscommunication errors throughout the game as well as a few times where the defense was out of position. It's nothing major, but things that are important to clean up if they want to play deep into the postseason. Best of luck to the Moraine Valley Cyclones throughout the rest of the playoffs!
Tomorrow night (Thursday November 4th) we're back to IHSA Girl's Volleyball coverage with the Sectional Finals LIVE from Romeoville H.S.
Be sure to stayed tuned to SportsTownChicago.com for the latest updates and be sure to check back here everyday for the latest information about where we'll be next!
Thursday Brings The Hardware!
Alex LoCicero (A-Lo)
No comments:
Post a Comment