Girls volleyball: Eastland ends Schaumburg Christian's impressive 1A run

Bailey Cummings finished her five-year varsity career on Schaumburg Christian's girls volleyball team on Saturday with nearly 1,000 kills.

She will continue her career at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mi.

She will take with her memories of quite a postseason run in her final season as a Lady Conqueror.

In only its second year participating in IHSA state competition, Schaumburg Christian advanced all the way to Saturday's Class 1A Christian Liberty supersectional in Arlington Heights.

Playing in the storied Grace Gymnasium, formerly the home of the Arlington Cardinals before the District 214 high school closed in 1984, the Cougars from Eastland High School in Lanark ended the Lady Conquerors' success story with a 25-16, 25-8 triumph.

The Cougars are the defending 1A champions and will meet Strasburg (Stewardson-S) Co-op in Friday's 10:30 a.m. semifinal at Illinois State's Redbird Arena.

The Conquerors finished with a 20-11 record and hope for the future with a team that included four sophomores.

"Definitely, when we look back on this, we'll be happy with the outcome of this season," said Bailey Cummings, whose mother Alice has been the team's coach for the past seven seasons, including her first four when her daughter Paetyn (a junior now playing for Cornerstone) was on the team.

Cummings led Schaumburg Christian with 10 kills in her final high school match. She helped lead the Conquerors to a 43-18 record the last two seasons, with 13 of the losses coming to Class 4A or 3A teams.

"We were sectional champs and very successful for only our second year playing in the IHSA," Bailey said. "I'm very happy with our season."

With Schaumburg Christian not being an IHSA member five years ago, that enabled Bailey to play on the varsity as a setter when she was in the eighth grade.

"That definitely was an advantage," Bailey said of her early start in varsity competition. "It allowed me to play all the positions. My mom needed a setter my first year so I tried it. I've been a libero and outside hitter, which is technically my position, but I played middle this season."

Alice and her husband Robert have another daughter ready to join the program as soon as next year.

The Conquerors had only three seniors (two who played club) on their 15-player roster this season.

"It's a very, very young team," Bailey said. "So they should be decent in upcoming years."

One of the returning players is sophomore Faith Rahn. Rahn's sister Abby, a former Schaumburg High School standout, plays for Union University's women's volleyball team in Jackson, Tenn.

Faith's mother, Connie, is the girls athletic director at Schaumburg High School. Coincidentally, Connie's prep girls volleyball coach from Flanagan High School has been the scorekeeper for Eastland's girls volleyball team since 1999.

Marilyn Berge is a pioneer in IHSA girls sports and was the longtime girls volleyball coach at Flanagan.

"It's cool that my mother's role model in high school was here," said Faith, a multi-sport athlete who contributed 3 digs on Saturday.

Sophomore middle blocker Morgan Hoffman added 3 kills for the Conquerors while senior setter Jordan Lempa handed out 12 assists.

"Just getting this far was really good because we are a very young team and we've been going against a lot of teams with juniors and seniors," said Schaumburg Christian sophomore libero Nicole Toth. "Hopefully, we can come back and do even better next season. This was a really good experience for us."

Eastland (29-9-1) has experienced this quite a few times, owning state titles in 2008, 2009 and 2015 and a fourth- place finish in 2003.

Cougars coach Mallory Clements is in her first season directing the program.

"I don't have the words for this," she said of her first team that will head downstate. "I'm so proud of these girls. They've had a lot of weight on their shoulders and they have carried it above and beyond."

The Conquerors kept things interesting for the first half of the first set.

Despite falling behind 11-5, they climbed back to 11-8 on a tip by junior Veronica Woods.

A kill by senior Courtney Benson later drew SC to within 12-10 before the Cougars eventually closed out the set with a 12-3 run.

Eastland raced to a 9-2 lead in Set 2 and never looked back, getting the final points on back-to-back aces by Ashley Beyers (5 kills, 3 aces, 11 assists, 6 digs).

Senior Makenzie Fink, who will play at Northwestern College (NAIA) in Orange Tree, Ia., led Eastland with 7 kills while Katie Krogman added 3. Jordan Miller served 5 aces with 9 digs for the winners.