Girls volleyball: Hersey outlasts Barrington
For the 25th time in the last 30 seasons, Hersey's girls volleyball team is headed to a sectional.
The top-seeded Huskies won their 25th regional in school history with a 25-15, 33-31 triumph over No. 7 Barrington (22-15).
The Huskies' championship in the Class 4A Highland Park regional title improved their record to 29-8.
They advance to Monday's semifinal of the New Trier sectional to face No. 6 Schaumburg (23-14) at 6:30 p.m. The first match at 5:30 p.m. will feature top-seeded and host New Trier (31-5) against No. 4 Niles West.
Hersey jumped out to an early lead in Set 1 with aggressive serving and outstanding defense. The Fillies battled back to take the lead in Set 2. Hersey overcame multiple match points to close out the dramatic win.
"Barrington put up a great fight," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill, who won her 948th match. "We were on fire and refused to be beaten."
Amy Morgan (7 kills), Kati Kaburov (6 kills), Hayley Martin (3 kills), Alessia Olhava (3 kills) and Janine Boyan (2 kills) led the Huskies' attack set by Emma Strozewski (28-of-29, 12 assists) and Olhava (26-of-27, 7 assists).
Kaburov also served 3 aces while Julia Coniglio paced the back row with 16 digs followed by Olhava (9).
Boyan, van den Herick and Martin each had 2 blocks.
St. Viator d. Sycamore: St. Viator won its third straight regional and sixth in school history with a 25-12, 25-18 decision over Sycamore in the Class 3A Sycamore regional.
Coach Charlie Curtin's Lions (26-11) were led on attack by Catherine Hickey (15 kills), Kate Nottoli (5 kills), Haylee Liberty (3 kills) and Kendall Claffey (3 kills).
Michaela Mueller was 84-of-84 setting with 26 assists wile Carrie Leazer led the back row with 15 digs.
Nottoli also served 4 aces.
St. Viator, the No. 1 seed in Sub-Sectional B, advances to the Burlington Central sectional and will face Johnsburg (No. 2 in Sub-Sectional A) at 6:30 p.m. on Monday.
New Trier d. Palatine: Top-seeded New Trier (31-5) ended another stellar season for Palatine (26-11) with a 25-14, 25-19 triumph at the Class 4A Prospect regional.
Haley Holz (7 kills, 7 aces, 5 digs), Beverly Ryan (5 kills), Maggie O'Brien (2 kills) and Katie Lindert (6 digs) led coach Dan Gavin's Pirates.
Class 1A: Christian Liberty won its own Class 1A regional with 26-24, 25-27, 25-10 over Westminster Christian (Elgin) to advance to the Westminster sectional.
Schaumburg Christian advanced to the same sectional by winning the North Shore Country Day (Winnetka) regional over the host school 25-18, 25-21.
The Chargers will face Newark at 6:30 p.m. on Monday while the 5:30 p.m. semifinal matches Schaumburg Christian against Serena.
CLA is the top seed and Schaumburg Christian is No. 2 in Sub-Sectional A while Newark is No. 1 and Serena No. 2 in Sub-Sectional B.
Antioch d. Richmond-Burton: Led by Kat Barr's 7 kills and 4 blocks and an almost-perfect team effort, the top-seeded Sequoits dominated No. 4 Richmond-Burton 25-9, 25-10. It marked Antioch's first regional championship since 2010.
"They were pumped," coach Greg Bruns of his Sequoits, who improved to 24-11-1 and advanced to Monday's 5:30 p.m. sectional semifinal against Rosary at Burlington Central.