Volleyball: Dixon pulls away on the road to top Rock Falls

ROCK FALLS – Playing a rivalry match in a hostile environment, Dixon brought its own energy in a 25-20, 25-21 win over Rock Falls on Thursday night at Tabor Gym.

The Duchesses (7-4, 1-0 BNC) slowly pulled away to win the first set, then rallied from a deficit midway through the second before holding off a late Rock Falls run to clinch the match.

"I think we really played well tonight and put it all together," junior libero Yui Santos said. "It's kind of been where our offense is really good one game and then our defense is really good one game, but I feel like we were all working together all night. I feel like we fed off the energy from their student section and having fewer people supporting us than at home; we kind of just rallied together."

The teams went back and forth in an entertaining first set, with four Mady Tichler kills in a six-point span staking Dixon to a 13-9 lead. Isela Valdivia served an ace to get the Rockets (8-8, 1-1) within 15-14, then they tied it up 16-16 on back-to-back Dixon errors.

A pair of Rock Falls violations and a block by Tichler put Dixon up 20-16, but an ace by Lilly Betts cut the Rockets' deficit to 20-19. Dixon's Leah Carlson ripped a kill, which was answered by Addison Miller's block to make it 21-20.

But the Duchesses scored the final four points on a Carlson ace and three Rock Falls errors to finish off the set.

"It's amazing when we play as a team. We all just have fun in practice, outside of practice, and it just comes together on the court. We all just make it work, and put it together really well," junior hitter Solis Thompson said. "We trust each other so much. Our front-row players trust our back row endlessly, and the back row trusts the front row. It's great. We have a lot of confidence in each other."

Rock Falls built leads of 5-1 and 6-2 early in the second set, then senior hitter Kacie Witherow stuffed a block and spiked a kill on consecutive points to put the Rockets up 10-6. Makenzie Toms answered with a kill and an ace for Dixon, but Kayla Hackbarth's kill put Rock Falls up 12-9.

Thompson then stepped to the service line and reeled off three straight aces to put the Duchesses ahead 13-12 before Carlson spiked a kill and set Tichler for another, then Tichler served an ace of her own to stretch the margin to 17-14.

Dixon had seven aces in the match and used its serving as a weapon.

"We really work on serving a lot, and it really does pay off. Also, the energy really just peaked during our serves in the second set," Thompson said. "It was really everyone's energy that brought us up. We got down a few points, then one of us would get a kill or a dig or serve or an ace and we'd all get excited. That really brings us all up as a team."

"I thought they served the ball really well, really aggressively," Rock Falls coach Jolene Bickett said. "The first set we handled it, and I gave the team a pep talk about serve receive, and then it fell apart; they came out and served even more aggressively. We were more prepared, when I scouted them, for them serving more short balls, so we were adjusting to that, and then they came out and hit it hard tonight."

Kills by Izzy Queckboerner and Thompson made it 20-15 Dixon, then Thompson slammed another kill after two Rocket errors to make it 23-15. Another Queckboerner spike put the Duchesses up 24-16, but Rock Falls wasn't done yet.

A block and two kills by Witherow cut the deficit to 24-21 and forced a Dixon timeout as the Rockets staved off five straight match points.

"They do respond well," Bickett said of her team. "We keep talking about how it's all about momentum. It doesn't matter if you're the better team that night or not, you've just got to come out and play. We even had a sub that went in for the wrong person and I had two players playing out of position, and they didn't hurt us at all, so I do appreciate them figuring it out on the fly."

But after the timeout, Carlson spiked one final kill to end the match.

"I think it was all talking, and moving our feet and staying on our toes. That really helped a lot," Santos said. "Playing as a group was huge; last year, we'd all play as individuals sometimes, but we really played together tonight and it was really good how we stuck together. It was just a great team win."

Carlson led the Duchesses with 11 assists and five kills, Tichler also had five kills and stuffed three blocks, and Queckboerner finished with four kills and two blocks. Hargrave stuffed the stat sheet with 13 digs, seven points, two kills and an assist, Thompson added four digs, three aces and two kills, Toms had six points, two blocks and a kill, and Santos chipped in 13 digs.

Witherow had three kills and two blocks, and Miley Bickett led the Rockets with nine assists and six digs. Miller, Hackbarth and Ari Reyna each had two kills, Taylor Segneri served four points, Valdivia added a pair of aces, and Elizabeth Lombardo finished with five digs.

"They were just quicker. They definitely forced us into mistakes. They played the ball well, and I thought their offense was faster and we had a hard time keeping up," coach Bickett said. "We scrambled well, but we gave them a lot of free balls; we were digging up their hits, but then we were sending it right back over and not getting our offense going. Kudos to Dixon, they just flat-out outplayed us."