It's more vintage Viator
St. Viator's girls volleyball team, enjoying one of its finest seasons, took fifth place at the Glenbrook North Discovery tourney Saturday.
The Lions posted wins over Maine West, Prospect and Glenbrook North in the 16-team event.
Their losses were to New Trier and Evanston.
Emily Leazer led Viator (22-7-1) on attack with 34 kills followed by Christina Brinkman (28 kills), Mary Calov (24 kills), Kelly McConnell (20 kills) and Kelly Travaglio (13 kills).
Setter Carlyn Clevenger handed out 100 assists while Calov dished out 9 and Samantha Wallenberg 6.
Stephanie Rountree collected 41 digs and McConnell had 8 blocks.
Prospect (18-9) went 2-3 with wins over Maine West (25-13, 25-12) and Niles North (25-15, 25-23).
Top attackers for the Knights were Rachel Hunt (20 kills, 4 blocks, 5 aces), Sarah Hunt (13 kills, 7 blocks, 4 aces) and Mariel Sobey (13 kills, 3 aces) while Danielle Siwik (31 assists, 1 ace) and Abby Homuth (30 assists, 3 aces) set the offense.
Maureen O'Keefe collected 35 digs and 2 aces.
Buffalo Grove (7-20, 2-3 in the tourney) picked up wins over Leyden and the Glenbrook North sophomore team.
Leading the Bison on attack in the tourney were Alysa Feld (26 kills), Alanna Zawlocki (18), Paige Smith (13) and Stacey Jorda (11).
Zawlocki had 9 blocks, followed by Feld (7) and Morgen Angotti (6). Victoria Ito produced 39 digs while Angie Lombardo had 24. Kelly Sommers handed out 32 assists and Kelly Kowall 21.
Crystal Lake Central Invite: Elk Grove (17-10) went 3-2 and finished third as Amanda Gattone (21 kills), Leah Miller (20) and Jessica Condon (17) led the attack.
Condon also handed out 75 assists while Stephanie Maday and Melanie Jarosz each had 10 blocks.
Gattone served 9 aces and Olivia Roback 6 with 79 digs. Tara Braceros and Condon each added 26 digs.
Grayslake North Invite: Fremd (19-8), playing without University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee bound setter Kayla Price (illness), took third place in the invite. Fremd hosts Hoffman Estates on Tuesday and a win would give the Vikings the Mid-Suburban West championship.
Schaumburg Invite: Playing in its final regular-season tournament, Cary Grove's highly-explosive girls volleyball team went out in style.
The Trojans, who have lost to only one Illinois team all season, required just two games to win all five of their matches en route to the tourney title.
Two of those wins came over St. Charles North.
The first was a 25-19, 25-14 in pool play, then a 25-20, 25-16 triumph in the championship which improved the Trojans record to 26-4.
Three of the losses are to out-of-state teams and the other to Class 3A Hampshire.
"They are awesome," said St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins, whose team is 17-9. "They have so many weapons, that's why they are successful. They can run a complex offense and that kept us on our toes.
"They have some really good hitters and their setter (Jacksonville State-bound Abbey Heredia) does a great job getting them the ball. And another frustrating thing is that their libero (junior Sam Mainzer. who had 44 digs) is so good. She seems like she is everywhere."
The Trojans seemed to be putting down slams everywhere on the court in the title match.
Co-captain and senior Kayla Klinger took a set from Indiana-bound junior Colleen Smith and blasted it off a block to end the first game.
The Trojans wasted little time asserting themselves in Game 2.
Heredia, also a co-captain, jump served for the first 8 points, including 2 aces.
"Everyone on the floor for us jump serves," said the 5-foot-8 senior. "It's something we worked on all summer _ making sure everyone gets off the ground."
Kelly Lamberti (team-high 43 kills and 15 aces in the tourney) displayed her jump serve with authority in Game 1.
The 6-foot- junior rifled 4 straight aces to give the Trojans breathing room at 16-10 and the lead grew to 17-10 when senior middle blocker Colleen Hargrove slammed a kill down the line.
"That's the huge thing we've been working on - having more than just a few attackers to go to," said Heredia, who had 99 assists in the five matches. "When we have six players to go to, we can be hard to shut down."
The Trojans were able to get early leads in their games Saturday and that was not by coincidence.
"Our main thing was to jump out early and gets those leads," Heredia said. "But we never talked about winning every match in two games."
The fact that Cary-Grove did was not dismissed by veteran coach Patty Langanis.
"It's very hard to find a team that can play consistent for five matches in a day," said Langanis, who recieved a team-hgih 29 blocks from 6-foot sophomore middle blocker Ashley Rosch. "I was really happy how we didn't have a lot of highs and lows. You appreciate that as a coach."
Hawkins appreciated the play of her 6-foot-1 senior middle blocker Allie Van Dril and 5-foot-2 freshman defensive specialist Alex Gage.
Schaumburg (10-17) picked up wins 2 wins, defeating Larkin in pool play and for seventh place.
The Saxons were led on attack by Emily Young (23 kills), Alyssa Saklak (19), Rebecca Thompson (14), and Courtney Ugel (13).
Young also had 25 assists, 13 digs and 2 aces.
Jenny Dolan collected 29 digs while Thompson served for 9 aces and Saklak 8.