Glenbrook South cruise to straight set victory

By: Luke Drase

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Glenbrook South girls volleyball team took care of business to defeat Grayslake Central, 25-18, 26-24.

The game was highlighted by a number of long rallys, many of which went the way of the Titans, thanks to scrappy defense and great blocking.

GBS seemed to get their hands on every attack Grayslake Central presented by making great reads all night, and easing the pressure on their back row.

Head coach of GBS Kelly Dorn said: “Number 11 [Katie Gregory], our outside blocked incredible on right side attacks. We knew that their outsides were going cross court, so regardless if they get a stuff block, I always want a touch to help our defense, which I think we did a great job of tonight.”

Despite some early hitting errors, GBS settled in to take the first set convincingly. A big stuff block followed by an ace by Kiley Hanson on back to back points late in the set, gave the Titans the separation they needed.

That momentum was carried through most of the second set. GBS had comfortable leads of 21-16 and 24-19, but Grayslake Central made a borderline miraculous comeback, fending off five match points to tie the game at 24.

However, the GBS defense came though once again. The Titans dug everything that came their way to give them the lead once more, and finished the game off with an ace.

“I think we played really scrappy defense, that’s something we’ve really been working on,” said Dorn.

“We came together as a team a lot tonight. Last year we lost a lot of offensive weapons and we really made up for it in the back row and serve receive.”

The Titans were led by Christina Kladi who had four kills on the night. Katie Gregory chipped in with three aces, and the setting duo of Kiley Hanson and Megan Quill combined for seven assists on the night.

Like many other CSL schools, GBS will be making the short trip to Winnetka this weekend to participate in the New Trier tournament.