Hoffman Estates shakes out another win to set up MSL showdown

There's no telling how big a bowling fan Taylor Swift is, although the high school she attended, Hendersonville in Tennessee, did win the girls bowling state title in 2008.

When it comes to motivation on the lanes, however, Hoffman Estates seems to be channeling the pop star and one of her hit songs.

"When I get down on myself," said Hawks junior Darcy Lange, "my teammates tell me to just 'Shake it off.'

"What's past is past, and that's why we're doing so well this season. If you have a bad shot or a bad game, it doesn't matter, just move on."

Lange and her team did that just Wednesday at Arlington Lanes, moving on to next Monday's crucial match against Schaumburg by scoring a 3-game, 2,633-2,454 win over Barrington.

Hoffman, with the victory, stayed just 9 points behind the Mid-Suburban League-leading Saxons, who won again Wednesday over Palatine 9-0 to improve to a spectacular 81-0.

That's 9 matches and 27 games in the books without a loss in conference.

"We have a great team," said Schaumburg's Sunny Bobnick, who fired games of 192 and 182 against the Pirates, "but I had no idea we'd be this good."

Adina Contreras led the Saxons with games of 224 and 223 enroute to a 648 series, while Kylie Frick rolled a 237 game and 634 series.

Schaumburg's coach, Mark Kelly, said that he asked some of his players to "elevate their games" this season, and added that "they've done just that."

"Hard work," added Kelly when asked about the Saxons success. "This is a very hard-working team. They're very coachable, they listen and they never give up."

"Just look at tonight's match," added the coach. "We were down 60 pins late in the third game, but we hung in there, made the shots, converted our spares and were fortunate enough to win."

Fremd scored another big victory Monday, defeating Conant, and the Vikings were boosted by a clutch performance by Paluca Ilut.

Ilut, a senior, was set to bowl JV, but found out moments before game time that she'd be bowling on varsity due to an injury to one of the Fremd starting five in warmups.

"I basically had a just a few minutes to change (into a varsity shirt) and start bowling," said Ilut, who has competed for varsity in the past. "It's much different up here - more pressure."

John Slavic, one of the Fremd coaches, had nothing but praise for the senior's efforts.

"Paluca has made a commitment to this team," said Slavic. "She's put in more practice time than anyone except for maybe Stephanie (Judkins), and it's paid off."

Judkins rolled a 569 series (215 game) in the win, while Hoffman Estates was paced by Kelly Paradowski (215, 213, 624) and Alexis Orwat (214, 566).

Hoffman's win was all the more impressive considering that senior Amanda Richae, second in the MSL with a plus 211 average, missed the game due to illness.

"We had a little different lineup today," said Hoffman coach Dan Pfligler."We played with the hand that was dealt us, and everyone did well."

Now both teams - the Hawks and Saxons - are looking forward to next week's face-off for first place.

"It'll be intense," said Paradowski. "That's our rivalry game."

"We'll just have to go like we've been going all season," agreed Schaumburg's Bobnick. "We'll be doing whatever we have to do, in practice and outside of practice, to be ready."