Scouting the Streamwood Class 4A girls basketball supersectional
Class 4A Streamwood supersectional preview
When: 7:30 p.m. Monday
Who: Hersey (26-7) vs. Geneva (31-0)
Advancement: Friday's 6:30 p.m. state semifinal at Illinois State's Redbird Arena vs. the winner of the Illinois Wesleyan supersectional (Bolingbrook vs. Edwardsville)
Scouting Hersey: The Huskies are led by one of the top juniors in the state, 5-foot-9 guard Megan Rogowski (team-high 49 steals, 74 assists, 5.4 rebounds), who averages nearly 21 points and is the school's all-time scoring leader with 1,598 points. Seniors Maddie Swan (10.2 ppg, 8.2 rebounds) and Kathyrn Korff (5.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg) are also strong rebounders. Senior point guard Julia Fredian (also a standout goalkeeper in soccer) directs the offense (team-high 82 assists, 7.6 ppg, 2.0 rebounds) along with always-hustling senior backcourt partner Andrea Perkins (70 assists, 40 steals). In addition to those five, juniors Brittany Pittas and Eileen Zydek also had double-figure scoring games. Senior Kari Tunney provides depth in the backcourt.
Scouting Geneva: The Vikings' junior point guard Kat Yelle (Ohio University) leads the team with 14 points a game. Post players Lauren Wicinski (Northern Illinois for volleyball) and Kelsey Augustine (Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville for volleyball) are both 6-foot-1. Wicinski averages nearly 13 points and 9 boards, grabbing 19 and 18 rebounds in a 62-48 win over Rockford Boylan Thursday. The other starters are guard Sammy Scofield, a junior headed to Notre Dame for soccer, and sophomore forward Ashley Santos, a transfer from Bartlett who is the third-leading scorer behind Yelle and Wicinski. The Vikings lost to Wheeling in the Class 4A third-place game last season.
Sporting versatility: Different starters in the Hersey lineup are involved in varsity swimming, golf, tennis, soccer, volleyball and softball teams. "It's amazing," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley, a swimmer, basketball and softball player at Rolling Meadows. "Without a doubt, this is my most athletic group of seniors. They're just tremendous athletes." Of her six seniors (Maddie Swan, Kathryn Korff, Andrea Perkins, Julia Fredian, Kari Tunney and Domenica Giancola), four are three-sport athletes and two play two sports.
Big helping hand: Bob Huber and his Hersey physical education department, specifically teacher Chad Freeman (assistant boys basketball coach), have played a major part in the strength and fitness of the girls basketball players. "They have inspired our kids to work hard to become the best athletes they can," Fendley said. "They've been really important in getting the kids to the next level as far as strength and fitness. Their program really has helped our team."
On the record: Geneva's 63-2 record the last two years is impressive. But Hersey's 26-7 mark this year also is quite impressive considering the Huskies' schedule that included games with several Chicago-area ranked teams. "Obviously Geneva has been solid all-season," Fendley said. "It's hard to compare teams from different areas with very few common opponents." The only common opponent is Cary-Grove (26-4), which lost to Geneva by 7 points in the sectional semifinals and to Hersey by 16 in a nonconference game last month.
Good friends: Hersey's all-time leading scorer, junior Megan Rogowski, happens to be good friends with the leading scorer on Geneva's team, point guard Kat Yelle. The two got to be good friends the past two years playing on the same travel team. "She's my best friend on the team," Yelle said. "I went to her (sectional semifinal) game, we talked after the game, we keep in touch every week, text, Facebook. We are really good friends."
Never stop trying: Hersey senior forwards Maddie Swan and Kathryn Korff were hardly on the radar in junior high and they've become one of the finest post tandems in Fendley's 12 seasons. Korff was cut from her Thomas Middle School (Arlington Heights) team while Swan served as a reserve at St. James, also in Arlington Heights.
Fathers know best: When Hersey starters Julia Fredian, Kathryn Korff and Andrea Perkins were in the Hersey feeder programs, their fathers (Jim Perkins, Glen Korff and Mike Fredian) were the coaches.
Memories: When Fendley took the Huskies to a sectional appearance in her first season, the site was Streamwood High School. Now she is back to that school for the first time and coaching for a supersectional. The dean of the Mid-Suburban East has 248 career wins after guiding the Huskies to a 49-37 victory over Barrington in the Libertyville sectional championship. The Huskies also won championships in the Wheaton North and Season's End tourneys this season and were runners-up in the Maine West Tip-Off Classic.
Three-point showdown: Four girls from the Mid-Suburban League have qualified to shoot downstate at Illinois State on Thursday night - Barrington's Kelly Muskat, Hersey's Megan Rogowski, Rolling Meadows' Kelly Adair and Wheeling's Stephanie Kuzmanic.
-John Leusch