Stevenson finally conquers Cary-Grove
In the last three years, Stevenson has lost 8 straight matches to Cary-Grove including agonizing setbacks in two consecutive supersectionals.
The drought is over.
With Jenna Radtke contributing 11 kills with 6 blocks, the Patriots knocked off the Trojans 25-21, 25-17 to claim the championship of the Jacobs Invitational Saturday in Algonquin.
“I would trade the supersectional losses for the win today, but this was a huge win for us,” said Stevenson coach Tim Crow. “We didn’t talk about revenge, we just wanted to focus and play good solid volleyball. We came into the day motivated to get better and we accomplished that. Cary-Grove will get better as the season goes on and will be a very good team by the end of the season.”
With standout Rachel Baader (ACL) out for the season, Stevenson improved to 8-0 with a perfect 5-0 mark for the day. Going 3-0 in pool play, the Patriots advanced to the championship match with a 14-25, 25-20, 25-22 win over St. Ignatius.
“We know how important Rachel is to the team, but she is there every game and practice for support,” said Radtke. “We really wanted to beat Cary-Grove today. It was a revenge match. We came out with a lot of energy and really brought it.”
Against Cary-Grove (5-1) in Game 1, Stevenson scored the final 4 points to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Patriots scored the final point on a kill by all-tournament selection Lisa Pflugradt.
In Game 2, Stevenson scored the first 6 points and never looked back. The biggest lead for the Patriots was 18-8 after an ace by Pflugradt, who was named to the all-tournament team.
Pflugradt backed Radtke with 8 kills.
All-tournament selection Mallory Wilczynski paced the Trojans with 9 kills.
“Stevenson was the much better team today,” said Cary-Grove coach Patty Langanis. “We could tell after we have beaten them the last couple of years they were really focused.”
The Trojans, who were 3-0 in pool play, advanced to the championship match with a 26-24, 25-22 win over Jacobs in the semifinals. Alex Larsen paced the Trojans with 9 kills.
Jacobs (5-2), which went 3-0 in pool play, finished fourth as St. Ignatius garnered third place with a 25-20, 26-24 win over the Golden Eagles.
Senior Alyssa Ehrhardt, who was named to the all-tournament team for a third straight year collected 57 kills with 14 aces in 5 matches.
“Alyssa played very well and overall as a team we played well,” said Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer. “I thought we could have beaten St. Ignatius for third place. We had some ups and downs and we need to be more consistent.”
Marisa Smith added 28 kills and 14 digs for Jacobs, while Taylor Lauder had 57 assists and Mackie Traub dished out 48. Kassie Kasper had 30 digs and Katie Mahoney added 13 kills and 4 blocks.
Hampshire went 1-4 in the tournament, beating Elgin but losing to St. Ignatius, Crystal Lake Central twice and Stevenson.
Jen Dumoulin (26 kills, 39 digs), Erin Foss (16 kills, 4 aces, 40 digs), Arianna Rominski (19 kills, 56 digs), Julianna Goss (76 digs) and Brittany Laffin (61 assists, 4 aces) led the Whip-Purs.