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Hollingsworth does it all in Libertyville's tourney win

Mia Hollingsworth is more than just a workhorse for Libertyville's girls soccer team.

The junior forward has the ball skills to lead an offensive attack.

Take Saturday, for example.

The sister of former Libertyville all-state midfielder Marshall Hollingsworth, who's now playing for Wheaton College, Hollingsworth contributed a goal and an assist in leading unseeded Libertyville past No. 12 Evanston 2-0 in the opening game of the PepsiCo Showdown at Olympic Park in Schaumburg.

Lake Zurich and Warren also won their opening games, while Stevenson suffered a loss.

Hollingsworth has 5 goals and 2 assists in helping Libertyville start the season 2-2-1. She looks up to her big brother.

"He's is an unbelievable role model for me," Hollingsworth said. "He always works with me, and everything he does is with encouragement. He's always good with giving me advice, and I trust everything he says. He's just a great mentor and coach."

In extremely windy conditions against Evanston (6-3), Hollingsworth set up the first Wildcats goal, which was scored by Ali Urbanski in the 45th minute.

Five minutes later, Hollingsworth scored off a feed from Annie Thompson.

"The wind kind of took the ball for a bit," said Hollingsworth, who dribbled around a defender before playing the ball inside the back post.

Libertyville keeper Krista Erlandson made 10 stops, while getting defensive help from Alli Brucato, Izzie Griffith, Julie Neiweem and Abbey Peters.

Playing against the wind in the first half, Libertyville played with a sweeper. In the second half, coach Andy Bitta switched things up.

"We changed our formation and did a nice job finding space," Bitta said. "With the wind, we kept playing to the flanks, up to flag, getting some crosses, and we scored a couple of great goals. It was a big win for us to beat Evanston."

Warren 2, Wheaton North 1: Alissa Ramsden and Abby Vrabel scored for the Blue Devils, while Alliyah Parker and Valentina Rodriguez picked up assists.

It was the third win in a row for Warren (4-1-1).

"The girls knew this would be a good game," Blue Devils coach Ryan McCabe said. "We came in mentally prepared and not over confident. We have several young players and they get to play with the veterans. We're starting to build the chemistry. We're just improving our speed and level of play."

Lake Zurich 1, Oswego 0: The Bears raised their record to 6-1, while Oswego dropped to 4-2-2.

Jordan Jackson knocked in the goal for Lake Zurich off an assist from Katie Fabbrini.

Eleanor Daleski made 6 stops for the clean sheet.

"It's nice to start off the tournament with a win," Lake Zurich coach Michael Castronova said. "(Oswego) was a good team. Playing against the wind in the first half and keeping them off the scoreboard was key to us. We put pressure on them in the second half. It was nice to get one goal, but we thought we might get a couple. We're just happy to get out of here with a win."

Glenbrook South 4, Stevenson 0: The banged-up Patriots gave up three goals in a 75-second span late in the second half in falling to the unseeded Titans.

"It was a bad few minutes," said Stevenson coach Kevin Heffernan, whose team is 1-4-1. "The girls got tired fighting the wind in the second half. It just caught up to them. It was also very difficult to communicate with them with the amount of wind.

"With as beat up as we are, I thought the girls gave a great effort. Glenbrook South (6-2) is a real good team to go up against."

In the round of 16 Tuesday, Warren visits top-seeded Buffalo Grove. Lake Zurich travels to No. 6 Huntley, and Libertyville will be at No. 5 Lyons.

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