Fremd's Pinley wins No. 600
Fremd girls volleyball coach Curt Pinley watched his Vikings pick up 5 wins at Saturday's Grayslake North Invite.
In addition to winning the championship, Pinley also won his 600th high school volleyball match when the Vikings (19-8) defeated Woodstock in the final match of pool play.
In 18 years of coaching boys volleyball and 13 with the girls, Pinley's career mark now stands at 602-438-3.
The Fremd art teacher also watched a new design in his offense Saturday as Milwaukee-Wisconsin recruit Kayla Price returned from an ankle injury that left her sidelined for nearly three weeks.
The 5-foot-10 senior shared the setting duties with sophomore Marylin Lortz for the first four matches, then directed a 5-1 offense in the championship match when Fremd defeated the host school 26-27, 25-11, 25-21.
“We just paced her along the first four matches and then she played the whole last match, Pinley said. “The team responded well to Kayla her being on the court.
Price was 80-of-83 in the title match with 44 assists and finished the tourney 175-of-184 with 76 assists. Lortz was 60-of-63 with 28 assists.
Their leading options were Alex Messner (83-of-92, 54 kills), Jessi Wiedemann (43-49, 22 kills), Claire Brady (39-44, 23 kills) and Rebecca Clarke (35-of-49, 17 kills).
In the backcourt, Taryn Lempa led Fremd with 20 digs, followed by Rebecca Bagg (14), Jaimie Groot (8) and Price (7).
Messner served 7 aces while Clarke and Price had 6 apiece.
Messner also made a team-high 9 blocks followed by Brady (7) and Kendall Shoaf (4).
Pinley is now 252-172 with the Fremd girls program and owns a 350-272 record coaching the boys at Palatine and Fremd high schools.
Schaumburg Invite: Nationally-ranked Cary-Grove stopped Stevenson for the title 25-17, 25-17.The host Saxons (19-9) went 2-3 in the eight-team event and placed seventh, defeating Larkin 25-14, 25-22 in their final match of the day.Top attackers for Schaumburg in the five matches were Emily Young (32 kills), Sara Travis (25), Alyssa Saklak (12), Kelly Koutnik (110 and Rebecca Thompson (10).Whitney Grossman and Young each served 6 aces while Bria Hailey collected 4.#8220;Even thought we didn't reach our goal in this tournament, we stayed together as a team and tried our hardest all the way, said Hailey, a 5-foot-9 junior middle blocker who also had 10 blocks, one behind Young's team-high 11. #8220;We will learn from our mistakes and we know that we will be excited for the rest of the season. Our next match is going to be a big event. We will be pumped up and ready to go.That next match will be at Hoffman Estates on Thursday when the Saxons (9-1) try to win a second MSL West title in four years (10-0 in 2007) under coach Jeanette Pancratz.The Saxons stopped Hoffman 25-23, 15-19 the first time.Glenbrook North Invite: Prospect (13-12) went 3-2 as Sarah Hunt (44 kills), Sage Rebecca (18), Ashley Wabik (10) and Mariel Sobey (6) led the attack set by Danielle Siwik (54 assists) and Shea Gallus (46).Buffalo Grove (4-22) was 1-4 as Alanna Zawlocki (24 kills), Sierra Bugno (21) and Bailey North (14) paced the attack directed by Kathy Hampton (50 assists) and Mary Guth (18).Jessica Ray had 29 digs.Lyons Township defeated Libertyville for the title of the 16-team event.Crystal Lake Central Invite: Elk Grove improved to 16-15 by going 3-2 in the tourney.