A home win over St. Laurence on Sept. 16 felt like a turning point for the season, Homewood-Flossmoor girls volleyball players said. 

The team was coming off a disappointing trip to Downers Grove South for the Denise Kavanaugh Invitational. The Vikings finished in eighth place in Dupage County, going 1-4. 

“We had a tough weekend. We knew that that wasn’t who we are. We had something to prove tonight,” Coach Nate Nesbit said. “We absolutely used that as motivation. There were great teams at Downers Grove South but we underperformed for us. We had to have that real talk of ‘Do we want to be a middle of the table team or do we want to be fighting for the top?’” 

H-F seemed to answer that question for itself with a 25-16, 25-23 sweep of a strong St. Laurence team.

“There were a lot of factors that made us think we really needed this win,” Clemson recruit Ihuoma Ozoh said. “It’s our second home game, and we don’t want to lose any home games. We wanted to show out for ourselves and for our fans.” 

It was the first time Ozoh played without any restrictions for the first time in over a year. An injury kept her out almost all of last season. She’s been practicing in full, but playing only one set at a time on gameday.

“I think (playing one set) was good stamina work for me,” she said. “I was really happy to see that progress, that that work was working.” 

The night swung on a couple of runs in the first set. Ozoh had two big blocks during a 4-0 swing and sophomore Sydney Skinner had a pair of aces during a later five-point stretch to help H-F to an 18-10 lead.  

The visitors’ only lead of the night was 1-0 in the second set. St. Laurence forced a 10-10 tie before Homewood-Flossmoor won six of the next seven. 

“We made sure to talk about (the Downers Grove South tournament) as team, get ourselves together and make sure that we have a goal,” senior setter Na’imah Calhoun said. “This is exactly what we were looking for.” 

St. Laurence (10-5) was led by junior outside hitter Aubrey Martinez, a Ball State commit. She had 14 kills and six digs.

Wisconsin commit Kymora Scott led Homewood-Flossmoor (8-7) with 12 kills and four blocks. Skinner had eight digs, and Ozoh had five kills. 

H-F is set to begin SouthWest Suburban Conference play Sept. 23 against Andrew.