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Oakland University reels in Riedl

When she first started playing volleyball, Jessica Riedl wasn't even thinking about playing the sport in college.

"But one day a friend and I started talking about wanting to play together in the Olympics," she said. "It made me think of what I wanted to do with my volleyball career and made me think I wanted to continue to play the sport in college even though, now, I'm not seeing my volleyball career as going as far as the Olympics."

No, but she sure had a gold-medal high school career and that led to her playing at the Division I level for the next four years.

Riedl signed a letter for intent six days ago to play for Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.

The three-time all-area selection, who led West with 276 kills last fall, will study math.

"What attracted me to Oakland was the strong volleyball program," she said. And the school itself, and the location. I'm going to study mathematics but I don't know specifically what I want to do in that field yet."

Riedl not only helped the Warriors share the Central Suburban North championship in volleyball last fall, but she also made a key contribution to Kim de Marigny's girls basketball team winning the North this winter and enjoying one of the best seasons in program history (third place in Class 4A).

"Playing on a final four state basketball team was a lot of hard work but fun too," she said. "Coming from my freshman year when we had 9 wins to getting third in state has been a great journey. The team this year was so close, especially since I had been playing with some of these girls since seventh grade and everyone had a desire to work as hard as they could to get downstate. The intensity on the court and the memories we made off the court made for an overall successful and memorable season."

Riedl had many memorable moments on the volleyball floor, too.

As a four-year middle blocker, she also recorded 78 blocks, 85 digs and 26 aces. "Jessica sets the tone in practice with her great work ethic and attitude," said Maine West coach Mike Cott after last season. "She is a great all-around player."

Riedl chose to play volleyball in grade school.

"I wanted to participate in every sport my grade school offered," she said. "I had always loved competition and also diving on the floor to get the ball, so I was eager to finally play on a team."

Her skills were enhanced with club volleyball.

"Someone who really inspired me to reach my goals is my Rolling Thunder coach for the previous two years, Spencer Kaszuba," she said. "His desire to sacrifice his time and energy into me and the team inspired me to work as hard as I could to reach my goals in volleyball."

She will look to reach her new goals at Oakland, where she will play for coach Rob Beam, a 1992 Glenbrook South High School graduate who is 95-67 in 10 years.

"I'm excited to play volleyball there with a great team and coaching staff," Riedl said. "And to also get the opportunity to become an even better volleyball player."

Softball

Wisconsin Whitewater junior pitcher Julia Camardo (Buffalo Grove) was named athlete of the week in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Camardo allowed only 1 unearned run on 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out six in the Warhawks' 9-1 victory in five innings over Wisconsin-Stout in the second game of a doubleheader. She recorded five flyouts and four groundouts while raising her record 5-1.

• Two former Mid-Suburban West standouts were part of Butler's 4-1 win over Indiana in the second game of a doubleheader in Bloomington IN.

Butler sophomore Christina Candotti (Schaumburg) had a double in the second inning and then connected for a 2-run single in the third inning which scored Alyssa Garcia (Fremd) for a 4-0 lead.

• Winona State freshman outfielder Carly Kordich (Barrington) is batting .340 (16-of-47) for the Warriors (31-5) with 13 runs, 6 RBI and 3 doubles.

Girls basketball

Fremd graduate Nicole Rinaldi, who won four Mid-Suburban League championships while playing forward for Vikings coach Carol Plodzien, has been named the Maine East girls basketball coach.

A counselor at Maine East, Rinaldi has been involved with the Maine East girls basketball program off and on the past six years, serving as Freshman A and B coach as well as a varsity assistant.

She was instrumental in marketing the program in order to increase freshman numbers enough for a freshman B team as well as helping to create a feeder team during that time.

Rinaldi was a NCAA Division III assistant women's basketball coach at Concordia University-Chicago from 2008-2011.

After graduating from Fremd, she played on a Horizon League conference champion team and Women's National Invitational Tournament qualifier for Division I Illinois-Chicago.

Women's golf

Bradley senior Ally Scaccia (Prospect), who tied Danielle Lemek's school record for career rounds played at 120, fired a 3-over 75 in the second round of the Jan Weaver Invitational in Kentucky. It was her lowest round of the spring. Scaccia was 1 shot out of the top 20 in a tie for 25th at 152 and the Braves took sixth place in the event cut short by snow and cold temperatures.

Scaccia was tied for 13th after day one of the Missouri Valley Conference Championship at the par-72 Sand Creek Station Golf Course in Newton, KA. on Sunday.

Scaccia fired an opening-round 78 and was three shots back of a five-way tie atop the individual leaderboard.

Illinois State senior Kiley Walsh (Prospect) carded an 80 (39-41) for 27th place. She had a birdie on the front nine.

Women's lacrosse

Augustana junior Emily Lucnik (Schaumburg) scored the Vikings' first goal at the 23:48 mark in a 26-5 loss to North Central. She ended up with 2 goals in the in College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin match in Naperville.

Augustana, which started playing lacrosse in 2012, had never lost a conference game in its short history of sponsoring the sport at the varsity level. The Vikings had won 36 consecutive games in conference play until the loss to the Cardinals. Of the 36 wins, 18 were in the CCIW and the first 18 were in the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference.

Men's volleyball

Augustana freshman Matt Schiferl (Wheeling) was named to the all-conference team in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League.

Schiferl, who was named the MCVL "Defensive Player of the Week" three times this season, was the lone Viking selected to the 16-team squad. He was a second-team selection.

Schiferl played in all 27 matches and saw action in 98 out of 99 games in Augustana's inaugural season of men's volleyball.

He was instrumental in the Vikings posting an 11-16 overall record and a 4-5 mark in the MCVL.

Schiferl led the team in digs with 304 in 98 games for an average of 3.10. He also had 68 setting assists and 1 service ace.

He recorded double-digit digs in 17 of the Vikings 27 matches and his high was 25 in a five-set upset of Benedictine, which was ranked ninth in NCAA Division III at the time, on February 3. He also had 21 digs in a season ending 3-1 win at Fontbonne.

• Please email items to jleusch@dailyherald.com

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