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Newark tops Hinckley-Big Rock for 10th straight Little Ten Tournament title · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Newarktops Hinckley Big Rock for tenth straight little Ten Tournament title. Written
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  by Brian Hoxie This article is being read by an automated voice,
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  brought to you by Everlet. Newark senior Taylor Jeffers was getting a
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  little nervous toward the end of Saturday Night's championship match of the
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  52nd Little Ten Conference tournament against Hinckley Big Rock at Indian Creek
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  High School in Shabona. The tension wasn't necessarily about the uh outcome,
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  but more about whether she would get a chance to get back
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  on the floor before the match ended. It was definitely going through
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  the math and rotation in my head. Will it work out that,
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  I can get back in before the end? Said Jeffers, who subs
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  out to bypass the front row. If it wouldn't have worked out
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  and we won, I'd have been okay with that, but I'm glad
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  it did. Jeffers did get the chance to return and promptly served
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  an ace on matchpoint to close out the number two seeded Norsemen's
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  2518-2518 victory over the number 5-seeded Royals. It was the
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  tenth consecutive conference tournament title for Newark which has now won the
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  tournament 29 times, including 16 of the last 17 and 26 of
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  the last 30. Winning this tournament is always a big goal of
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  ours, Jeffers said. The previous Newark teams have set the bar, and
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  we just wanted to keep that bar where it's at. Taylor is
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  just a gamer. Newark coach PJ McKinney said, his team on a
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  fifth team match win streak, her leadership for this program over the
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  past few years has been outstanding. She came to me last year
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  and said, I think we should put someone else in the front
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  row for me because I'm not really a hitter. That was a
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  decision she made because she felt it would better the team. That's
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  what a leader does. Newark 2444 was led by Zoe Carlson, 11
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  kills, 4 blocks, Riley Carlson, 6 kills, 15 digs, Miawese, 5 kills,
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  Tesakot, 16 service points, 4 ace Ella Bromland, 9 digs, Kayla Pottinger,
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  9 assists, 4 digs, and Jeffers. 11 assists, 3 digs, 2 aces.
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  Newark had leads of 11-3 and 2012 in the first set, but
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  HBR closed to within 22-18 on an ace by Julianne McKay sandwiched
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  between kills from Millie Gals. From there, a hitting error preceded a
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  block by Wesa and a set point kill by Riley Carlson. We
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  hadn't played Bar yet this season, but we watched them against Serena
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  in
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  the semifinals on Friday, Jeffers said. We knew we'd have to come
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  ready to go because the were playing really well. It was a
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  really good match. They just kept fighting back. But in those moments
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  we stayed confident and calm. Newark jumped out to a 7-2 lead
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  in the second set behind three aces by Cott and a pair
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  of kills by Zoe Carlson, but again the Royals fought back, tying
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  the scored at twelve on an ace by Emma Oren. We have
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  the word respond on the back of our warm up shirts, McKinney
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  said. We talk a lot about no matter the situation, good or
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  bad, how are you going to respond? I felt like whenever we
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  needed to respond tonight, we did. The Norsemen scored 13 of the
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  final 19 points, including two kills each from Zoe Carlson, Riley Carlson,
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  and Wesse, to close out the match. Hinckley Big Rock 1311 was
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  led by Gals, 4 kills, Orin, 3 kills, 2 blocks, and Naya
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  Redder, 6 points, 2 aces. We've come such a long way, improved
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  so much since the beginning of the season. HBR coach Jojo Badal
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  said This is a every young but talented group of girls who
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  have really worked on getting better. It wasn't the outcome we wanted
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  tonight, but I couldn't be prouder of how the girls played, they
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  fought until the very last point. I thought our serve and serve
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  receive was really good tonight, but Newark was really good as well.
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  Newark is very good in every aspect of the game, so to
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  stay with them you have to really limit mistakes. We had a
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  few, but the fact that we just let those points go and
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  moved on was a key as well. We came into the tournament,
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  seeded fifth, and finished second. This week was a big confidence boost
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  for us.