Fremd stays busy, and keeps winning

For the second consecutive week, the Fremd girls volleyball team played a Monday night nonconference match the day before a conference contest.

"It's a scheduling nightmare, in all honesty," said Vikings coach Curt Pinley about the back-to-back weeknight matches in two consecutive weeks. "It makes it very tough, especially coming after homecoming week. Hopefully, we can change that for next year."

But the Vikings wouldn't want to change much in their performance Monday when they posted a 25-21, 25-14 victory over visiting Rolling Meadows.

"We were solid," said Fremd junior middle hitter Kaitlyn Pascus, who had 2 blocks and 3 aces. "We weren't up and down. We stayed consistent."

The Vikings (13-8) jumped up 9-4 in Game 1 behind 4 straight service points from senior Danielle Warner.

Included in that rally were kills by Kimberly Naylor and Stephanie Alesi.

Fremd never let the visitors closer than 4, and pulled away to a 20-10 lead on back-to-back blocks by Warner and sophomore Tess Dinterman.

Game 2 was close early before a kill by Rolling Meadows senior Jenna Milas brought the Mustangs to within 9-7.

But Fremd proceeded on an 11-3 run to pull ahead 20-10.

The Vikings got their 18th point when junior Natalie Bruck quick set Pascus for a kill which ended the longest rally of the match.

"It always feels good when you get a point like that," Pascus said. "You feel like you earned it."

Alesi led the Vikings with 7 kills, followed by Warner (5) and Bridget Morton (4).

Vikings coach Curt Pinley liked how his setters controlled the floor. He used three -- senior Michelle Gonnella (8 assists), junior Bruck (5) and senior Brittany Albro.

"To be honest, I thought we set a pretty good match," Pinley said. "Michelle has really worked hard to improve her game. Natalie missed some time with an injury (shoulder), so she still can't serve. So we'll bring in Brittany and she did a real nice job, too."

Junior Katie Stensland and senior Dana Demmert each had 3 kills for the Mustangs (9-12) while Milas had 2.

Stensland also had a pair of blocks while Jackie Carbery had 1.

Carbery can't wait for her Mustangs to return to the floor tonight.

"If I have anything to say about it, we'll be ready for our match today," she said. "Needless to say, we are embarrassed by our performance this match.

"Fremd is not a bad team. But we didn't play close to how we can play. We were out of rotation in Game 1 and then we let that get to us. We were mentally out of it. We can't do that."

Mustangs coach Janet Opels hopes her team can return to the form it enjoyed at the Harlem Invite 10 days ago when it was 3-2.

"Right now, we're regressing," she said. "We're trying to figure out how we can get back on track. But I know the kids are trying."

Carbery said the Mustangs have shown improvement defensively.

"Unfortunately, it didn't show in this match," she said. "And we didn't have strong offense, either."

St. Viator d. Nazareth: St. Viator (7-11) received 4 kills from Kristen Guth, Kelly McConnell, Cara George and Katherine Julius to post a 25-22, 20-25, 25-23 in Arlington Heights.

Daniela Presta handed out 15 assists while Jacki Stanley led the defense with 20 digs.

Michelle Warnimont was 11-of-12 serving with 3 aces while Mary Calov was 11-of-12 with an ace.

Julius had 3 aces while Stanley and George each had 2.