Girls volleyball: Smarts, heart lift Fremd past Prospect

Before Tuesday's sectional semifinal match against No. 6-seeded Prospect, Fremd coach Curt Pinley talked to his girls about playing smart volleyball.

"But we said if we were going to win, it wasn't only going to be because of smart volleyball," he warned. "It was also about heart, working hard and dedication to defense to be the better team."

The Vikings excelled in all those areas and came away with a hard-fought 25-22, 26-24 victory to advance to Thursday's championship match of the Class 4A Glenbrook South sectional in Glenview.

The No. 10 Vikings (30-8) will face No. 5 Niles West (26-8) for the title at 6 p.m. The Wolves advanced with a two-set triumph over top-seeded Loyola in Tuesday's first semifinal.

"I can't remember two teams seeded this low meeting in a sectional championship in a long time," said Pinley, who won this 400th career girls match a few weeks ago at the Grayslake North Invite.

"I give our girls all the credit in the world. We had to come and play some great defense and earn all of our points, and they did a great job of it."

And they did without Southern Illinois recruit Ysabel Lee, who sprained her ankle in practice on Monday.

"We had to play without Ysabel in our first tournament of the season when she injured her ankle and we did OK against Wheaton St. Francis," said Fremd senior setter Natalie Freund. "So we knew we could make the adjustment. We knew Sara (Ganas) and Jess (Rizzo) could come in and play the position."

Senior Bailey Hooker led the Fremd attack with 7 kills, followed by Kailyn Bryk (6) and Ganas (4).

"I'm honestly kind of speechless," said a thrilled Ganas, whose kill in the first set got the Vikes off to a 7-2 lead. "We lost to Prospect last year in an early round so were pretty fired up to play them again this year."

The Vikes extended the first-set cushion to 11-4 on a block from Ganas before Prospect climbed back to 12-8 on a kill from senior Kaela Myers, who led the Knights with 7.

A kill by Bryk got Fremd back in front 16-11 but Prospect refused to go away and got back to within 20-18 on a kill from senior Maggie Porwit (5 for the match).

Freund's set to Bryk resulted in a kill and 24-20 lead. Prospect held off 2 set points before Bryk's set winner.

The Knights charged to an 11-5 lead in Set 2, getting back to back kills from Mandy Withey (3 blocks, 2 kills).

But Fremd showed its resiliency and slowly chewed away the lead. Myers' kill made it 14-9 but Rizzo served 6 straight points to give Fremd a 16-14 lead.

Hooker recorded back-to-back kills for the final 2 points of the rally.

"I just want to try moving defenders around," Hooker said. "I like to hit difficult shots that keep the defense on its toes.

"When we knew we would not have Ysabel, we just said "it's nothing different, we will still always have two great hitters who can come off the bench and we can still win."

Fremd edged away to a 19-15 lead but Prospect drew to within 21-20 on Withey's block.

Junior Jess Mazur's kill got Fremd to match point at 24-22 before Prospect got a clutch kill and block from Myers to tie it at 24.

Rizzo's kill went off a Fremd blocker to make it 25-24 before Hooker's beautifully placed tip over two defenders ended the match.

Fremd stayed alive in many rallies with its defense, led by Karolina Sas (23 digs), Rebecca Uhrich (8) and Rizzo (6).

"They played great defense," said Prospect coach Laura Gerber, who got the Knights to a sectional for the first time since 2003. "Our attacks were not dropping and it was hard to get kills.

"They played with more energy and really did well as a team. So hats off to Fremd."

Sas made an outstanding save when she dove on the floor and punched the ball up to Ganas who was able to put it across for a kill and 22-20 lead in Set 2.

"Defense wins offense," said Sas, who is planning to play for coach Bob Visloet at Harper. "My freshman coach at Fremd told me that and ever since I became so serious about getting every ball up that I could.

"I never thought I could get this far with my 'family' (teammates). I have just learned so much being around them, We want to go as far as we can and it's happening, just like the Cubs."

Meghan Meredith added 6 kills for Prospect (26-12) while Mary Mazurek had 5. Setter Paige Gerber handed out 25 assists.

"Fremd made some really nice shots," said Porwit, who will continue her career at Washington University in St. Louis. "I'm proud of the run we made. It's the first time in a long time we've gotten this far. Overall, I'm happy that we achieved this."

"The girls should be proud of themselves," Laura Gerber said. "They were competitive all season. No one should be sad. It was a big year. Prospect volleyball hadn't gotten this far in a long time. They should be real proud. And we will look forward to next year."