Young St. Viator squad making progress
With only two seniors on the roster, St. Viator has one of its youngest girls volleyball teams in coach Charlie Curtin’s six seasons.
So the Lions are willing to be patient and learn as the season progresses.
Resurrection visited the Cahill Gymnasium on Wednesday night and the Chicago-based private school posted a 25-18, 25-22 victory over the host Lions.
St. Viator (2-7) will begin its East Suburban Catholic Conference schedule on Tuesday against visiting Marist.
“We’re young and it’s going to take a while,” said Lions 5-foot-8 junior outside hitter Megan Mueller. “We are going to get better.”
Mueller is going to be a leader on attack as she showed Wednesday by putting down a team-high 8 kills.
“I thought Megan did a wonderful job,” Curtin said. “She was one of our only girls to be able to put the ball in bounds. She was very consistent (12-of-14) and she played a nice all-around game (4 digs, 1 ace).”
Other top attackers for the Lions were Mary Cleary (4 kills), Jenny Brandt (3 kills), Kaitlin O’Brien (2 kills) and Kristen Abrahamson (2 kills).
Junior Molly Ziegler was 30-of-30 setting with 10 assists and she collected a team-high 7 digs.
“We need to start helping and motivating each other on the floor,” Mueller added. “We’re trying to push each together to do our best.”
Mueller said the Lions’ loss was more their own fault.
“We were just letting things get in our head,” she said. “We were making our own mistakes.”
Curtin watched Brandt collect the Lions’ only block while Abrahamson, Cleary, Ziegler and Mueller each served an ace.
“We’re young,” Curtin said. “We’ll get it in time.”
Conant d. Lake Park: Hall of Fame coach Peggy Scholten’s Cougars (4-6) won the nonconference match 25-16, 25-19 in Hoffman Estates as senior setter Suzi Loznjakovic handed out 15 assists and served 11-of-2 with 2 aces.
Top targets for Loznjakovic were Jenn Donnell (8 kills), Katie Lomas (5) and Alissa Wachal (3).
Teammates Daniele Sortino added 2 blocks and 2 kills while Sarah Manczko also had a pair of blocks.