West Chicago loses, looks to the future

With 10 of the 15 players on this season's West Chicago girls volleyball team set to return in 2015, Monday's Oswego East regional quarterfinal against the host Wolves was a lesson in what's needed for the future.

Oswego East, seeded 13th in the Class 4A Bartlett sectional, had to fight off the aggressive 18th-seeded Wildcats (11-22) but prevailed 25-16, 25-13. The Wolves face second-seeded Glenbard West at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in semifinal play.

"It's a young group. I have six players on JV ready for varsity next season," said West Chicago coach Kris Hasty. "We made young mistakes being in a playoff game. We're not as poised, but that comes with experience."

The Wildcats led for a good portion of Game 1. Hitting errors by the Wolves put West Chicago up 7-4. Later, a kill by Molly Howard made it 8-5, and after Oswego East tied it at 8, a shot by Emily Windisch put her team back up 9-8. A Wolves hitting error gave the Wildcats a 10-9 lead and that was their last advantage of the game.

The Wolves then opened a 6-point advantage and closed out Game 1 scoring six of the last nine points.

Like Game 1, West Chicago showed some momentum in Game 2 but couldn't muster enough of it. A kill by Kiera MacPherson tied things at 3 and the Wolves maintained a 1- to 5-point lead with the Wildcats staying on Oswego East's heels. The Wolves, though, served up 5 straight points to take a 20-10 advantage and never looked back.

"We were all excited and fired up and ready to play at the beginning. We hung with them. We just let (Oswego East) chip away at things and it got caught up. We lost confidence in ourselves," Hasty said.

MacPherson and Laura Katarzynski each had 4 kills for the Wildcats.