Now seniors, Kemph, Vliet in town this weekend

Rolling Meadows High School's former standout basketball duo of Jenny Vliet and Jackie Kemph, teammates since the second grade, began their final collegiate season at St. Louis last Friday night.

Kemph scored 15 points, including a 9-of-10 effort from the foul line, and added game highs of 5 assists and 3 steals in the Billikens' 60-59 season-opening victory over Indiana State.

Vliet had 3 steals in the game.

"I remember playing feeder basketball with Jackie, and both of our dads were our coaches," said Vliet, who turned in career bests in scoring (8.6 ppg), 3-pointers (60) and free throw percentage (.828) last season. "We used to goof around and get yelled at by our dads all the time. It seems so long ago now, but to think about how far we have come is really humbling."

The two Billikens, who helped Rolling Meadows earn back-to-back Class 4A state runner-up trophies under coach Ryan Kirkorsky in 2013 and 2014, can't believe it's their senior year in college.

"It's been crazy to think Jenny and I have been playing together since the second grade, and now we are about to be 22 years old," said Kemph, who earned player of the year honors for a second consecutive season in the Atlantic-10 in 2016-17. "And now it's our last season playing together."

Vliet and Kemph are two of 10 players back from last year's team that posted a 25-9 overall record, tied for third place (12-4) in the A-10 and reached the WNIT second round.

"We are both really excited for our senior season," Vliet said. "When I started here at SLU, it seemed like I would be playing here forever. We have six seniors so it's really hard to believe that it's our last season playing together, but we plan on making this our best season yet."

"I'm really excited," Kemph said. "We have a great schedule this year and an awesome team. We play nonconference teams like Missouri, Vanderbilt, Washington State, Ole Miss, LSU and possibly DePaul. It's our hardest schedule yet but I think we are ready. This is a great schedule to help us get into the tournament."

That 'possible' meeting with DePaul would be this weekend when the Billikens participate in the Maggie Dixon Invite at Wintrust Arena.

"Coming back to Chicago as seniors is going to be awesome," Vliet said. "We haven't gotten to play in the area yet so it will be nice to have all our family and friends out at the game. We play Ole Miss first (on Friday), so hopefully we can win that one and play DePaul for the second game (on Saturday)."

"We are really excited to play in the DePaul tournament," Kemph added. "It will be fun to get the chance to come back to Chicago."

Kemph needs just 191 points to pass Sadie Stipanovich as the Billikens' all-time leading scorer. She is a preseason first-team all-conference choice.

"We really want to finish our time here strong and do some things that have never been done at SLU," Kemph said.

"Our time at SLU has shaped us in a lot of ways so we are both incredibly thankful for all of our experiences and for getting to play together for so long," Vliet added.

Women's soccer

Elmhurst College junior forward Sidney O'Keeffe (Conant) earned first team all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin honors.

It was O'Keeffe's second straight all-conference honor. She earned second-team accolades last season. O'Keeffe started all 16 games for the Bluejays at forward and led the team with 7 goals and 4 game-winning goals while also ranking third on the team in points scored with 15.

She totaled nine of her 15 points against CCIW opponents, ranking sixth in the league in points scored and points per game (1.12).

Her four goals against CCIW opponents ranked third in the league. She finished as the league's co-leader in game-winning goals with 3. Elmhurst finished 10-6-1 overall and a 4-4 mark in the CCIW. The Bluejays qualified for the CCIW Tournament for the first time since 2014.

Men's swimming

Carthage junior Sam Gabriel (Prospect) was selected as the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin men's Swimmer of the Week.

He helped lead the Red Men to a first-place finish at the Calvin Quad meet.

Gabriel won the 100-yard backstroke in 51.80, which ranks 11th in the country and is also an unrested best. He also took first in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:52.84, which is an unrested best by nearly three seconds and is currently ranked third nationally.

In addition, Gabriel was part of the winning 400 medley relay (3:30.76) and 200 medley relay (1:35.03).

Women's volleyball

Shaw University sophomore Alex Masnica (Elk Grove) had 2 assists in the Lady Bears 3-0 sweep of Fayetteville State University (25-21, 25-23, and 26-24).

It marked the second consecutive season that Shaw claimed the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Southern Division regular-season championship.

The Lady Bears improved to 24-4 overall while moving to 14-1 in the CIAA and 8-1 in the South.

Masnica has 303 assists for the season.

Men's basketball

There was a local flavor on both benches when Southern Illinois defeated Winthrop 81-66 last Friday night in South Carolina.

Salukis assistant coach John Clancy was a standout player at Buffalo Grove while Winthrop assistant Mike Howland starred at St. Viator.

Both were Daily Herald all-area players and assistants at the same time under Joe Majkowski, the retired hall of fame St. Viator boys basketball coach.

Clancy and Howland were also high school coaches - Clancy at Wheeling and Howland at Viator.

Clancy also was an assistant for Meadows graduate Glenn Olson at Niles North.

Major League Baseball

Former Buffalo Grove standout shortstop Tim Bogar has been named first base coach for Washington Nationals manager Davey Martinez. Bogar was previously with the Seattle Mariners.

Bogar played at Eastern Illinois before being drafted by the New York Mets in the eighth round of the 1988 Major League baseball draft. He also played for the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers.

• Warren graduate Derek Shelton, headed into his 14th season as a coach in some capacity in the major leagues, has been hired as the Minnesota Twins' bench coach.

When Shelton was a freshman on the Warren varsity baseball team, Wheeling softball coach Mike Caringella was the Blue Devils freshman baseball coach.

Maine West feeder

Tryouts for the Maine West Boys Feeder Basketball teams will be held at Maine West High School in the spectator gym on Sunday, Nov. 26 and Sunday, Dec. 3. Fifth and sixth graders will be from noon to 1:30 p.m., seventh grade from 1:35 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. and eighth graders from 3:10 p.m. to 4:40 p.m. For questions or more information please email bill.besenhofer@infor.com

• Email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com