Girls volleyball: Hersey takes lead in Mid-Suburban East
The Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights hosted a test of undefeated Mid-Suburban League girls volleyball teams on Thursday night.
Host Hersey aced the exam.
The host Huskies reeled off a season-high 11 aces en route to a 25-13, 25-16 triumph over visiting Prospect.
No one was more productive at the service line than sophomore Kati Kaburov, who was 13-of-14 with 5 aces.
The 5-foot-10 outside hitter also had 7 kills and 6 digs.
"Kati was crazy," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "She is so dominant - front row, back row. Everything she did was so tough. She has been so good all season. It's scary that she is just a sophomore."
A service point by sophomore Sarah Skaggs gave Prospect (2-5, 2-1) a 6-3 lead when Kaburov put down a big side out kill and then stepped to the service line.
Kaburov fired off seven straight points, including 2 aces, to give Hersey (8-3, 3-0) an 11-6 lead it would never relinquish.
"I've worked really hard on my serving" she said. "I try to mix it up and follow the zone my coach gives me. I've been practicing a lot and I think it's starting to pay off a little."
The Huskies gave little doubt they were letting up in Set 2 as they raced out in front 8-3, getting 2 aces from sophomore Alessia Olhava and one from senior libero Molly Twohig during the fast start.
Olhava ended up with 3 aces while junior Katie Moreno had 2.
"Hersey came out and served really well," said Knights coach Laura Gerber. "We couldn't serve receive, so we could never even get into our offensive system."
Hersey's 6-2 offense was directed by Olhava (23-of-23, 11 assists) and senior Emma Strowzewski (18-of-18, 7 assists).
"I think we really just kept up the energy and stayed aggressive at all time," Strozewski said. "We never let them get any big runs on us."
Prospect tried to make a run midway through the second set when junior Gianna Russo's back set produced a kill from senior Colleen Palczynski, getting the Knights to within 16-13.
But Hersey scored 9 of the next 12 points to register the win over the only team it had lost to en route to last year's 13th straight MSL East championship.
"We knew they beat us last year so we really wanted to make sure we played hard this time," Kaburov said. "They're a tough team but I think we just played a little tougher. Our goal was to come out and play with a lot of energy. We've had a lot of ups and downs so we wanted to stay up this entire match and have a lot of energy, and that really helped us. Our serving made a difference, too. Now we've got to keep working hard to keep this going."
Prospect's attack was led by Emma Cogan (5 kills), Grace Cacini (4) and Meghan Meredith (3) with Russo handing out 8 assists and Skaggs 3. Valerie Thomas collected 11 digs and Russo served an ace.
"I'm disappointed for our girls," Gerber added. "They didn't play the game they can play. They are better players than that. We made too many errors. Unfortunately, Hersey just played better than us."
The Huskies' attack also received 6 kills from senior Amy Morgan followed by Olhava (3), Hayley Martin (2) and Juliette VanDenHerik (2). Morgan led the back row with 9 digs while Janine Boyan, Olhava and Martin each had a pair of blocks.
"Prospect is a really good team and we knew they had been playing well," Lill said. "We had to come out on fire. Earlier this season, we ran up big leads and then let up with unforced errors that allowed teams back into the match.
"So we were determined to play hard all the way through and this was probably one of the best matches we've played as far as keeping errors down and keeping up the aggressiveness."
Lill has been experimenting with a new 6-2 lineup.
"I think this is working pretty well." she added. "We got a lot of offense. I thought our blockers did a nice job early on slowing down their offense. It was just all-out aggressive offense."