Girls volleyball: Prospect wins own Pifer Invite again

With two IHSA Hall of Fame coaches from Prospect on hand, the Knights girls volleyball team did not disappoint in its own invite on Saturday.

Sandy Pifer, for whom the invite is named, and Jean Walker, for whom the Prospect field house is named, watched the Knights put their name on the winning trophy of the Pifer Invite for the second straight season.

"We are really excited to win this invite two years in a row, and it was even more special that Sandy was here to hand out the trophies and all-tourney medals," said Prospect coach Laura Gerber.

In addition to Walker, the former girls athletic director, girls and basketball and girls tennis coach at Prospect, former Wheeling Hall of Fame softball coach Pat Ritchie was also in attendance.

Gerber was thrilled to have not only Pifer but such an all-star gathering sports knowledge.

"It's great to have Jean here, too," said Gerber. "The support from past 214 coaches is great to see."

Knight fans were able to see their team win all five of its matches - three in three sets - to claim the top prize over runner-up Palatine, which is the defending Mid-Suburban West champion and currently tied for first in the West with Barrington and Fremd.

"With that win (25-23, 23-25, 17-15 over Palatine), we realize we can play with anyone in the conference," said Knights senior Kaeli Myers. "The key was staying focused and maintaining our energy."

"We knew it could come down to our match with Palatine," said Knights senior Maggie Porwit, who will continue her volleyball career at Washington University in St. Louis where she will study pre-med and chemistry. "That's a really tough team. Every girl has either played on my club team (Rolling Thunder) or is playing with it now."

The match was decided by 2 points in every set.

"They were all really close sets and we just fell in a good rotation when we needed it at the end," Porwit said. "Last year, Palatine served short balls at us and scored points right away. Mrs. Gerber remembered that, so she switched up our defense and it worked out real well. I don't think they scored a single point on a short serve."

The Knights improved to 14-5 with the 5 wins while Palatine, which went 4-1, is now 15-4 overall.

Rounding out the field were McHenry (3-2), Maine East (2-3), Lake Park (1-4) and Richards (0-6).

Knights senior Mary Mazurek also said the key was the big win over Palatine.

"Palatine is really great team," she said. "They are strong offensively, have really good setting, are scrappy and good at picking up tips. But we were able to find open spots on the floor that helped us."

Taking their cues from senior setter Sydney Christiansen (120 assists), the Pirates were led offensively in the tourney by Claire Chaplinsky (58 kills), Haley Holz (27), Beverly Ryan (16) and Brooke Bauer (14).

Senior libero Alyssa Kronberg collected 63 digs followed Chaplinsky (36) and Katie Lindert (22).

Ryan (6) and Chaplinsky (50 were tops in blocks while Corey Rinella led in service aces with 9, followed by Chaplinsky (6) and Lindert (5).

"The last few weeks we have struggled with the little things and we've had some lapses," said Pirates coach Dan Gavin. "And then here we had the one match (Prospect) where we did those things occurred again and it cost us. We do a lot of things right but we are just not consistent yet,"

Rhode Island-bound Chaplinsky and Memphis-bound Kornberg were named to the all-tourney team.

"And deservingly so," Gavin said. "Both had good tourneys. Claire really stepped up leadership-wise. She made some big plays for us against McHenry when we were struggling and that helped us get that win (17-25, 27-25, 15-11)."

As usual, senior Paige Gerber directed the Prospect offense with 65 assists. Porwit led with 30 kills, followed by Myers 25, Mandy Withey (18), Megan Meredith (15) and Mazurek (14).

In the back row, junior Val Thomas collected 30 digs, followed by Myers (28), Porwit (15), Gerber (14) and Kendra Gancarz (9).

Leading in aces were Thomas (3), Gerber (2) and Emma Coogan (2) while Meredith was tops in blocks (9) followed by Porwit (8) and Withey (7).

Thomas, Porwit and Myers were name to the all-tourney team.