Hersey serves up winner to grab first in MSL East

Hersey used strong serving to defeat host Elk Grove 25-17, 25-14 on Tuesday night in Mid-Suburban League East Division girls volleyball action.

The Huskies had 6 servers go perfect on serve attempts and combine for 6 aces.

Senior Anne Carroll led the way with 3 aces, followed by McKenzie Forbes (2) and Shelly Mueller (1), who directed the offense with 15 assists.

With the victory, Hersey (15-3, 5-0) grabbed a one-match lead over Elk Grove (13-5, 4-1) in the division.

"I think our serving game took them out of their offense," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill, who also received 6 kills from junior Katie Lill and 5 from senior Anne Carroll. "Their serve receive struggled, and that affected their whole game. I know the next time we see them it's going to be a heck of a lot tougher than that."

Lill said the key was that her team did a good job of staying aggressive while serving.

While she didn't have the most aces in the game, Forbes was the Huskies' best server, going 16-for-16.

"She (Forbes) was moving it around really well," Lill said. "And so was Shelly Mueller."

Nancy Lill said she was happy to come out with a decisive win despite her team not playing at its best.

"It's a good thing that you can go back to the gym and have something to work on and yet we still won and controlled the match," Lill said.

Elk Grove coach Joe DiSilvio said his team struggled with ball control and transitioning the ball from defense to offense.

"I don't think we played well, and they (Hersey) kept some good pressure on us," DiSilvio said. "I think that was the difference, that we didn't come out to play well enough to be in the match for the entire game."

Elk Grove scored the first 4 points of the first game but struggled to get the ball to outside hitters Katie Loos (3 kills) and Krystina Leazer (6 kills) on a consistent basis after that.

"Defensively, we've played well in the past," said DiSilvio said, who watched Olivia Roback collect 10 digs. "We didn't seem confident in doing what we were supposed to do or doing what we know we can do in terms of being in position. So that was definitely a big difference too."

DiSilvio said overall it was ball control and serve receive that hurt his team the most.

"We couldn't get the ball up to the setter to run any kind of offense," DiSilvio said. "Hersey knew where we were going to put the ball, so it's pretty easy to set up and play defense against that."

Rolling Meadows d. Prospect: Rolling Meadows (4-8, 2-3) used a balanced attack from Michelle Waigainis (5 kills), Katie Stensland (4) and Joanna Strezelec (3) in a 23-25, 25-22, 25-20 MSL East triumph. Stensland (7 assists) and Libby Marsh (6) ran the offense while teammate Sara Sompolski had 16 digs.

Sarah Hunt (9 kills) Tracy Hefferan (8), Emily Busse (7) and Rachel Hunt (4) paced the Knights (4-10, 2-3), who received 22 assists from Abby Homuth and 7 from Danielle Siwik.

Hoffman Estates d. Palatine: Jada Stotts (7 kills), Megtan Bernardoni (5) Lauren La Massé (4) led the attack for Hoffman (6-11, 2-3) in a 21-25, 25-21, 25-15 MSL West victory.

Palatine (3-9, 0-5) was led on attack by Hannah Guth (5 kills) and Amalia DeSardi (4). Syndey Wiedemann had 13 digs and Maddie Meehan 6.

Stephanie Schwarz handed out 10 assists for the Hawks while Becky Gilbert had 10.

Barrington d. Schaumburg: Barrington (5-13,3-2) posted a 25-17, 25-15 MSL West triumph as Kristen Soderman (8 kills), Anabel Perry (6) and Emily Harris (5) led the attack. Madison Lang (10 assists) and Madeline Root (9) directed the offense for the Fillies.

Schaumburg (3-14, 1-4) was led on attack by Sarah McGinn (6 kills), Emily Young (5) and Ellen Kostecki (3), while teammate Aleks Kostka had 11 digs.

Buffalo Grove d. Wheeling: Katie Quill (3), Jacki Sisi (3) were top attackers for Buffalo Grove (3-13-2, 2-3) in the 25-22, 25-21 MSL East win.

Victorio Ito went 14-for-14 serving with 2 aces, while Alyssa Feld and Alanna Zawlocki each had 2 blocks.

Wheeling (4-15, 0-5) was led on attack by Danielle Zimmerman (5 kills), Kelsie Jurik (40 and Paulina Rzepecki (3).

Maine West d. Maine East: Maine West (11-6, 3-0) received 8 kills from Alise Tupuritis 8 kills and 17 assists from Liz Freeman (4 kills) en route to a 25-16, 25-12 CSL North victory. Emily Ott and Maria Rozo each added 3 kills for the Warriors while Martha Gajewski added 2.

"We gave Maine East 24 of its 28 points," said West coach Randy Tiller. "We can't make that many errors against stronger teams like Glenbrook North (who the Warriors play on Thursday)."

Boys golf

Fremd 151, Buffalo Grove 161, Schaumburg 161: Sean Jones (36), Kyle Bahnick (37) and Chris Ramirez (37) were top scorers for Fremd (9-1, 8-1) which moved into a tie for first in the Mid-Suburban League with Hersey and Barrington.

Boys soccer

Barrington 4, Fremd 1: Ryan Mangone scored a pair of goals while Frank Ingraffia and Ata Ozbay had the other two for the Broncos (11-3, 5-1) in the MSL West match.

Matt Mayer scored for the visiting Vikings.