No hiding secret to Hersey's success

Volleyball coaches always stress the importance of serve and serve receiving in order to win matches.

Just as casual football fans might not recognize excellent blocking by linemen, volleyball observers might not always pick up on serve-receive skills.

Hersey coach Nancy Lill couldn't avoid that part of the Huskies' game Tuesday night as the defending Mid-Suburban East champs started conference play with a 25-15, 25-9 victory over visiting Wheeling in the Ken Carter Gymnasium.

Sophomore Becca Haraf (11-of-11 serving, 3 aces) and senior Lauren Dembowski (7 digs) acted as the primary serve receivers. Sophomore Katie Lill (9-of-9 serving, 2 aces) and senior Annie Schey (5 digs) also made key contributions.

The Huskies made only 1 bad receive in 23 chances.

"That's amazing," Nancy Lill said. "We passed really well."

The Huskies (6-2, 1-0) did well in a lot of other phases of the game, too, and used a balanced offense to score many of their points.

Dembkowski, (8 kills), Ann Carroll (5), Lill (4), junior McKenzie Forbes (4), senior Grace Nowack (2) and Shelly Mueller (2) led the way.

Mueller, a 5-foot-10 junior who was 11-of-11 serving with 2 aces, handed out 21 assists directing the 6-1 offense. Her service run of 8 points in Game 1 gave the hosts a 13-3 lead.

"I thought everyone did a really nice job serve receiving and we were connecting well with Shelly," Nowack said.

"The key to this match was teamwork," Schey said. "We really connected at our tournament over the weekend (second at Willowbrook) and that helped us tonight."

Nancy Lill felt that was a big factor, too.

"We had our hands full this weekend with some good competition," she said. "That was good for our team and what lies ahead."

Senior Lily Villalobos' 3 kills led Wheeling (4-4, 0-1), which received 8 assists and 7 digs from setter Janelle Schroeder. Lindsey Mills added 2 kills.

"Hersey is a good team but we should have put up a better fight," said Wildcats assistant coach Jason Kopkowski. "We look forward to another chance later in the season. We need to come out with a better mindset and we must be more prepared mentally and skill-wise."