Barnhorst's return lifts Wheaton North past West Chicago
Without returning senior starter and captain Emmy Barnhorst, the Wheaton North girls volleyball team played well Saturday at its annual home Blue and Gold Tournament.
As the Falcons were about to win the third-place match, Barnhorst arrived from taking the SAT in Arlington Heights. Had the Falcons reached the championship, she would have played.
"That was a bummer. If it were one hour later, I would have made (our last match)," Barnhorst said. "There were a few (test) passages about sports in general. I was thinking about volleyball the whole time."
Back in action Thursday, the 6-foot-2 Barnhorst provided a big lift in the Falcons' 25-23, 25-10 victory over West Chicago in Wheaton.
Barnhorst had 8 kills for the Falcons (5-3) with back-to-back kills in the first game to give them the lead for good at 19-18.
Senior Elizabeth LaBue had 4 aces in the second game behind an 8-point service run for a 13-2 advantage followed by the final 3 points of the match.
"Our mindset in the second set was a lot different," LaBue said. "We have a lot of seniors. I think that motivates us a lot. Right now we have a lot of different lineups. We're trying to find what fits and what works."
LaBue finished with 15 service points. Barnhorst also had 8 digs, senior Eve Light had 16 assists, junior Ani Clark had 5 kills and senior Alex Schmid had 4 kills.
Senior Laura Katarzynski led West Chicago (1-7) with 8 kills and 5 digs. Senior Emily Murphy had 9 assists and seniors Jessica Smith and Irene Horn had 8 and 7 digs.
Both teams are heavy with seniors, but most have little varsity experience.
Coming off a program-best 30-8 season and co-DuPage Valley Conference title with Neuqua Valley, the Falcons return five starters - Barnhorst, LaBue, Clark and seniors McKenna Otto and Madison Schorle. The Falcons were hampered Thursday by 11 service errors.
"I've thrown them into different lineups," Wheaton North coach Carole Kristensen said. "It almost was like ping-pongy (the first game. I said), 'I can't handle watching that anymore,' and then they came back. We got more into a rhythm and then (West Chicago) started tipping and trying to throw us off our system."
New West Chicago coach Pam (Kavadas) Pater is a former star at Lake Park and the University of Iowa who was the freshman coach roughly five seasons ago. The only non-senior is sophomore Lilly Smith, sister of senior Maggie Smith but not senior Jessica Smith.
West Chicago was 0-5 at Wheaton North's tournament, including a 25-14, 25-10 loss to the Falcons in Aug. 23 pool play. All three losses Saturday were in three sets.
Coming off its first win Tuesday at Larkin, the Wildcats took a 13-9 lead on the Falcons in the first game.
"As a brand-new head coach, I'm asking them to do things differently, and they're doing it. It's just not showing on the court just yet," Pater said. "We didn't make errors (the first game). We just played our game, did our job. We just came out flat (the second game) and we couldn't recover."
This season Barnhorst is adjusting from middle to outside hitter. Otto, who leads the team this season with 60 kills, made that switch in 2016.
"Emmy's getting more comfortable. She just needs to be in there and get that experience," Kristensen said.
LaBue, who leads the Falcons with 16 aces and 54 digs, improved her serve during the club season with Sports Performance. LaBue began Thursday as the libero and switched between games with Schorle.
"I always had a consistent serve. But getting a lot of aces hasn't always been my thing," LaBue said. "I've focused more on placement instead of hitting as hard as I can because I know if you hit to the right person, it's more effective."