Chargers Reach Region Title Match Before Succumbing to No. 18 Scots

GRAYSLAKE — The Carl Sandburg College volleyball team came up one victory shy of returning to the national tournament, falling 25-13, 22-25, 25-23, 25-17 to nationally ranked McHenry County on Sunday in the championship match of the Region IV Division II District A Tournament.

The third-seeded Chargers (25-18) advanced to their seventh consecutive region title match after earning victories Saturday in the quarterfinals against Kankakee and semifinals against Morton. The top-seeded and 18^th-ranked Scots, though, held Sandburg to a .187 hitting percentage in Sunday's title match to advance to the NJCAA Division II National Championship.

Sandburg was represented on the all-tournament team by third-year sophomores Gracie Rademacker and Carmyn Baldwin. Rademacker had a team-best 15 kills and 16 digs in the championship match, while Baldwin doled out 39 assists from the setter position.

Lauren Erke contributed 12 kills against the Scots, and Jadyn Swan had nine kills for Sandburg.

McHenry cruised to a first-set victory before the Chargers evened up the match. Down 17-16, Sandburg won four straight points to take the lead, including an ace from Erke and kills from Rademacker and Grace Evans. A Swan block gave the Chargers the second-set victory.

A 5-0 Chargers run evened the pivotal third set at 14, and a Rademacker kill knotted the set against at 19-all. McHenry County, however, went ahead for good by taking the next three points.

The Chargers' only lead in the fourth set came at 1-0. McHenry County led by as much as eight on a pair of occasions and was ahead 19-12 before a 5-1 stretch for the Chargers got them within 20-17. But the Scots took the next five in a row to close out the match and take the title.

Sandburg finished the year with 25 victories and an 8-0 mark in the Arrowhead Conference as the Chargers won their third conference championship in the last five seasons and ninth in program history. 

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