2 weeks Ago By Bob Hamar For the Tribune
KENESAW — Kenesaw accomplished one of its goals for the season in a home triangular Tuesday night. The Blue Devils opened the night with a 25-17, 25-15 sweep of Deshler. They followed that by sweeping Franklin 25-7, 25-9.
That came after three straight sweeps over Aquinas, Lawrence-Nelson and Harvard in the past week. “We had a goal this year of having five sweeps in a row,” Kenesaw coach Levi Leonard-Gorsuch said. “And sweeping Franklin just secured that.
” Communication on the court is one key for the Blue Devils (9-4), who have now won seven of their last eight matches. Led by libero Bentley Olson, they talk to each other constantly. Leonard-Gorsuch said they have to talk if they are going to play.
“That’s like a non-negotiable thing with us,” Leonard-Gorsuch said. “I feel like we’re so much more organized when we talk and things go our way. If you’re going to be on the floor, you have to talk.
” Avery Kelley led Kenesaw against Franklin (3-10) with six kills. Kami Kennedy and McKinnley Kroos had five each and Elise Schukei added four. “That’s one thing we say is our strength is that we don’t have just one or two go-to hitters,” Leonard-Gorsuch said.
“We feel like we have six hitters who can put the ball away at any time, and our setters do a pretty good job distributing and figuring out who has the hot hand.” Franklin had three 5-11 players in Olivia Haack, Liz Cole and Johanna Hausserman to go along with 6-1 Kallie Rutt. Kenesaw game-planned to counteract that height.
“Franklin had some height, so we knew we needed to swing away and pressure their block and see if they could handle it,” Leonard-Gorsuch said. “We felt like if we ran our quick offense like we did they were going to struggle with that.” The match against Deshler was closer, but Kenesaw controlled it all the way.
“It was rough, to be honest,” Deshler coach Kalee Schardt said. “I didn’t think our girls came out and played. Kenesaw is a great team.
They’re very scrappy. They have a lot of weapons. Credit to them.
“They kind of served us off the court.” Elise Schukei had six kills and Sophia Schukei five against the Dragons. The two matches were just what Leonard-Gorsuch wanted to see from his team.
“I felt like we came in and we controlled the night,” Leonard-Gorsuch said. “We knew if we came in and played Kenesaw Blue Devil volleyball, that we’d have a pretty good chance to win both games. That was the first time we’ve beaten Deshler in about two years, so that was a good one to start the night with.
” Deshler (5-4) was never really challenged in its match against Franklin. Jacilyne Peterson led the Dragons with seven kills in the match. “I think we came out a little stronger than we did against Kenesaw, which was good to see,” Schardt said.
“I still think we could have maybe stepped up a little bit more, but I loved the intensity we brought to put the ball away.” Schardt said the Dragons feed off of Peterson’s play. “Between her and Payton Bauer, they’re kind of our two go-to girls,” Schardt said.
“But Jacilyn is kind of our fire in our engine. If she’s going, we like to feed the ball to the middle. We kind of feed off of Jacilyn.
She’s a great kid.” Freshman Lyra Peterman and junior Hausserman led Franklin with three kills apiece..
