Girls volleyball: Fremd tops Hersey for MSL title

Fremd's girls volleyball players weren't even born when the Vikings made their first of four appearances in the 1989 Mid-Suburban League championship match.

But they did something on Thursday's night in Arlington Heights that none of those previous four teams accomplished.

The Vikings claimed their first MSL title with a 25-23, 25-20 triumph over defending champion Hersey at the Ken Carter Gymnasium.

"Every year Fremd teams say 'We're going to win the MSL title, we're going to win the title,' " said Fremd senior southpaw setter Natalie Freund, who is leaning toward continuing her career at Illinois Tech in Chicago. "Now we finally did it. The pressure is off. We can finally relax."

The Vikes (23-7) hardly relaxed on defense or offense on Thursday, keeping the pressure on Hersey all the way.

"I thought we did a really good job on serve receive, terminating first balls," said Fremd coach Curt Pinley, who notched his 400th win last weekend when his team went 5-0 at the Grayslake North Invite. "That's something we worked really hard on because we know with the size of our team we can't go out and play rally games. We are not big enough."

The big Fremd hitters on attack were senior Ysabel Lee (6 kills), Bailey Hooker (4), Kailyn Bryk (4) and Jess Rizzo (4).

Freund (16 assists) spread the ball around and also kept the Huskies off balance with 3 of her own kills.

"One of the main things we've worked hard on is to try and speed up our offense all season," Pinley said. "I think this match it really helped because they were taller in the middle. By moving the ball around and getting single blocks, that was helping us offensively."

Senior Zoe Strozewski had the only block for the Huskies.

"We had one block, what does that say?" said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "We didn't play our game. Yet we were still close in both sets."

Set 1 was tied from 1 to 4, before Fremd inched away to a 10-6 lead thanks to kill by by Bryk and ace by Rizzo (2 aces).

Freshman Kati Kaburov's kill got Hersey (21-9) to within 21-20 before junior Jess Mazur (1 ace) got the Vikes to match point with a kill that made it 24-21.

Freund eventually ended the set with a kill to the corner.

"Our middles were involved, our right sides were involved and our outsides were involved," Pinley said. "So everyone had a really good opportunity and Natalie did a fantastic job."

The second set was tied for the ninth time at 12-12 on a kill by senior Mary Clare O'Shea.

Fremd gained the lead for good on a kill by Bryk and a beautiful tip kill by Lee that made it 14-12.

The lead grew to 20-15 when Rizzo scored a kill off a block.

The Huskies drew to within 22-20 on a back-to-back block and kill by junior Amy Morgan before Fremd closed out the match with 3 straight points incluidng an ace by Rizzo.

An earlier kill by Rizzo that gave Fremd a 7-6 ended a rally that saw senior Rebecca Uhrich made two huge digs to keep things alive for Fremd.

"Rebecca Uhrich came up with some huge digs and Kailyn Bryk had some real nice touches," Pinley said. "Those were really game-changers because both sets were bak and forth."

"It's not just one huge hitter," Bryk said. "It's really a team effort. We are a team off momentum. If we can get it, we build off it."

Kaburov led Hersey with 10 kills from 23-of-24 attacking.

"Kati was phenomenal," Lill said of her freshman outside. "That was the best performance I've seen in an MSL championship in a long time. Mary Clare (O' Shea who was 10-of-10) also had a great night."

Amy Morgan, Strozewski, Sammi Steger and O'Shea each added 4 kills while setter Maggie Rreisel handed out 27 asssists. Liz Solans collected 15 digs and Reisel 12.

"I thought we played scare," Strozewski said. "We had a lot of nerves. If we were on our game, we might have had a differnet outcome. Fremd's defense was great."

The Vikings' strong serve receive was led by senior Karolina Sas (12-of-12), Rizzo (10-of-10) and Hooker (8-of-9).

"Give Fremd credit," Lill said. "They played better. It was their night."

A night that will go down as their finest in MSL history.

"I thought we did a fantastic job with defense," Pinley said. "Hersey played outstanding defense, too. There were balls I know my team thought were down, and they picked them back up. But when all was said and done, I think we just did just 7 points points better in terms in picking those balls up."