Schaumburg hoping to supercede Loyola

No. 1 vs No. 2.

Those who seeded the teams for the Class 4A Maine East girls volleyball sectional were right on the money.

It will be top-seeded Loyola (25-9) or No. 2 Schaumburg (25-13) on Thursday night trying to cash a ticket into Saturday's Evanston supersectional.

The Saxons advanced with a 25-14, 18-25, 25-21 triumph over the No. 3 Blue Demons in Tuesday's semifinal while the Ramblers won their semifinal 25-15, 25-17 over No. 4 Evanston.

Saxons coach Jeanette Pancratz (787 career wins) has her team playing in a sectional for the 12th time (winning in 1990, 1992 and 1994) since she took over the program in 1989. Prior to that she won 223 matches as the Resurrection coach.

This is Pancratz' first club in a sectional since 2007 when her daughter Drewann (now the head coach at Conant) and Gabby Blackwell (sister of current setter Jada Blackwell) were among the team leaders.

Senior Jada Blackwell directed the Mustangs' attack with 24 assists on Tuesday, including many to classmate Oyinkan Akinola, a Fairfield University recruit who put down a match-high 19 kills.

Also contributing on attack were teammates Mallory Gerber (5 kills), Blackwell (3) and Lexi Ross (3), who added 2 blocks.

Among the top Schaumburg servers were Lauren LaVigne (15-16) and Jessica Hartzman (10-of-10) while teammate Megan Hayes contributed a pair of assists.

Loyola's attack on Tuesday was led by junior outside hitter Olivia Van Zeist (8 kills) while junior setter Katie Randolph handed out 15 assists, 4 aces and a block. Junior middle hitter Kate Pillion chipped in 4 blocks with 1 kill and 1 ace.

Coach Mark Chang is in his third season directing the Ramblers, who were third in the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference behind Mother McAuley and De La Salle.

He has the Ramblers in a sectional for the second straight year and eighth in school history. They have never won a sectional.