Schofield, Carmel return to form against Palatine

Gracie Schofield was back for Carmel's girls volleyball team on Thursday night.

"It felt a little weird after missing the last three matches," said the Drake recruit, who suffered her first injury, a sprained ankle, in four years on the varsity. "It was just kind of hurting when I was jumping and landing on it. I just had to forget about it and play for the team. Once I did that, it was a lot easier."

Schofield and the No. 3-seeded Corsairs did not make things easy on No. 6 Palatine.

Attacking from all angles, the Corsairs registered 24 kills en route to a 25-11, 25-21 victory in the championship match of the Class 4A Wheeling regional.

The Corsairs (32-5) advance to Tuesday's semifinal of the Glenbrook North sectional where they will Stevenson (23-13) at 6:30 p.m.

It will be the fourth trip to a sectional (the Corsairs were 3A in 2011) in Carmel coach David Pazely's four years at the helm.

Schofield, who had 6 kills, 2 blocks and 1 ace, has played on all four teams.

"I'm glad I could be back for the playoffs," she said. "I would have been devastated if I had to stop playing for the season."

"It just felt right with her (Schofield) back on the court with us," said classmate Morgan Meade, a two-year varsity player who put down a match-high 8 kills.

A couple of kills by Meade and a block by Schofield helped the Corsairs to a 6-1 lead in Set 1.

A block by Taylor Luhr made it 10-3 and the Corsairs increased the advantage to 23-8 on 3 service points from Elizabeth Tworek, including an ace.

Palatine scored 3 in a row on service points from senior Meg Angelaccio, getting a kill from senior Alaina Mikkelsen and block from junior Heather Holz to make it 24-11 before Meade put down the set winner.

"We knew we had to play with a lot of energy," said Meade. "We had to play our game otherwise we would not be around to play another match. We are confident, but we know we can't get overconfident at any point."

Schofield made a few key points at the service line in Set 2, jump serving for back-to-back aces that gave Carmel a 7-3 cushion.

The Pirates got to within 8-7 on an ace from Holz but Carmel answered with a 7-1 run to take a 15-8 lead.

A block by Grace Butler made it 20-13 before Palatine made one last run, cutting the deficit to 21-19 on another ace by Holz.

Palatine never got closer and the Corsairs wrapped it up on a kill from Schofield.

"It was good to have her back," Pazely said of Schofield. "The biggest thing to the match was controlling the things we could do and executing them. When you limit your errors, you are tough to beat."

Palatine coach Dan Gavin surely agreed.

"They don't make a lot of errors," he said. "We didn't play well this match but Carmel had a lot to do with that. They're well-coached and disciplined. I thought we responded better in the second set but Carmel just didn't break down. They put a lot pressure on us."

As usual, Butler (11 assists) and Meade (10 assists) allowed the Carmel attackers to apply the pressure.

And Sierra Kepski continued to show why she is one of the finest liberos in Carmel history. The IUPUI recruit collected 20 digs, giving her more than 500 for the season.

"She is ridiculously good," said Pazely about the all-time school leader and single-season leader in digs. "She is so fast, so smart. She knows where to be before the ball is even there."

Cate Halverson added 3 kills for Carmel while Alexandra Wayland had 1. Each had 1 block, too.

"It was a good team win," said Pazely, a former middle hitter for Carmel who also played basketball and soccer. "Sierra had 20 digs, and when you do not let the ball hit the floor, you are going to keep yourself in any match.

"Then when you have the hitters putting the ball away, you are tough to beat."

Palatine (22-14) was led on attack by Holz (3 kills) while sophomore Sydney Christiansen handed out 14 assists.

The back row was led by sophomore Alyssa Kronberg (16 digs), Angelaccio (7), senior Jess Lundell (7) and junior Alexis Serna (3).

"There's a great group coming back," said Gavin, whose club won 20 or more matches for the third time in his eight seasons. "It would be nice to have the seniors back. You give this group one more year together and it could accomplish some scary things."

They did that pretty much this season, going from 7 wins in 2013 to 22 in 2014.

"That's unheard of," Gavin said. "It's a testament to these girls and how hard they were willing to work. It was a great season, I couldn't ask for anything more."