Libertyville basks in state spotlight

The e-mails and voice mails came from all over.

From former players, parents of former players, faculty, friends and opposing coaches.

All the messages had the same theme.

Congratulations to coach Chris Trzyna and the Libertyville volleyball team on its first trip to the IHSA state tournament.

The Wildcats secured their trip downstate with a 21-25, 25-19, 25-17 victory over Maine South on Monday in the Hersey supersectional.

Libertyville (34-6) will play Naperville Central (36-4) at 7:30 p.m. today in a Class 4A state semifinal at Redbird Arena in Normal.

Trzyna, in her 22nd year at Libertyville, has coached teams that were more talented. But this group is unique in the way it plays -- so unified and completely maxing out its talent.

"I could not be prouder of a group of girls," Trzyna said. "I call them the champions of the world. They have (responded) when we really needed to get it done."

Assistant coach Patti Mascia said Trzyna's passion for volleyball has never waned.

"You don't see as many coaches staying in this sport for 25 or 30 years," Mascia said. "She's been plugging away all this time and she's never gotten tried of it. It's so deserved for her to get here after all these years."

Surprisingly, Libertyville and Naperville Central, two schools with great volleyball tradition, have never met before. The Redhawks have won 21 consecutive matches and are led by outside hitters Emily McGee (406 kills) and Rebecca Heath (356 kills).

"We have a good scouting report, but our style is to worry about ourselves first," Trzyna said. "As we have all season, our (focus) will be to play great defense and move the ball offensively. There's an excitement on the floor every time we make a great dig. Usually the offense gets noticed, but (people) have noticed the back row because it's been such an important factor."

The defense, led by senior libero Emma Melendez, has impressed senior setter Erin DeMarco.

"They've made my job 10 times easier," she said.

Winning attitude

In retrospect, things are always so much easier to understand.

For instance, looking back, how easy would have it been in the late 1980s to realize investing in Microsoft would be a good decision. Or in the sports world, that the Bears would continue the recent NFL tradition of teams having a hangover after losing the Super Bowl.

The same line of thinking can be applied to the Libertyville girls.

At the start of this season, the thinking was that this would be a rebuilding season. After all, Melendez and DeMarco were the only returnees with significant varsity experience.

What most people failed to factor in was how much success the newcomers to varsity had enjoyed at the lower levels. Although most of Libertyville's senior class had no varsity experience, these were girls that played on undefeated teams at the freshman, sophomore and junior varsity levels.

When Libertyville dropped a match to New Trier on Aug. 30, it was the first time many of these girls had ever been defeated at the high school level.

"So many of them were brought up together through the program," Trzyna said. "These girls brought a winning attitude to the floor since Day one."