Berland thrives as Stevenson stops Wauconda

Carlee Berland is digging her recent position change to outside hitter.

Why?

"It's going to sound kind of weird," the Stevenson senior volleyball player said with a sheepish smile.

"But I like being over there for the digs, for like the little tips that normally people don't get. That's where most teams' weaknesses are, but we play a certain type of defense where we don't have weakness over there."

Rarely does Berland get the chance to dig. But since moving a couple of weeks ago from middle blocker, where she started as a junior and at the start of this season, she now gets plenty of chances to drive attacks. Giving her more touches is why Patriots coach Tim Crow made the change.

The 5-foot-11 Berland buried 15 kills in just 22 hitting attempts Wednesday night, as Stevenson defeated host Wauconda 25-11, 25-13 in a North Suburban Conference crossover.

"Our kills have gone up probably 8-9 more a match," Crow said after his Patriots, who've played a tough schedule, improved to 11-5. "She's a great middle. But if we're not passing well, we can't give her the ball and she can swing pretty hard. She can put the ball away, bottom line."

Berland hit efficiently all night against Wauconda (12-7), dominating on the left side.

"I love the outside," said Berland, who played the position all through club season with Sky High.

"I like the back row because I like to serve-receive," she added. "And I really like the tempo of the outside hit because they're a little bit faster. You can make them fast if you want to."

A Berland kill started the match, which saw Stevenson score the first 9 points behind the serving of setter Carolyn McDonough, who notched 3 aces during the run.

On the night, the Patriots delivered 7 aces and counted only 1 service error.

"I thought we served well," Crow said. "Usually serving is our biggest nemesis for us."

"We're normally a much-better serve-receive team," Wauconda coach Bob Taterka said. "Stevenson was doing some things to kind of take us out of that. Give them credit. They were exposing some of our weaknesses. As the match progressed, we got mostly better."

Ali Morrison came off the bench to lead Wauconda's hitters with 4 kills, while Cara Nance added three.

Wauconda sophomore setter Megan Tallman continued to impress with her improved defense. She and left-side hitter Erinn Hellweg each had 8 digs.

"I think last year she was really learning to play high school volleyball," Taterka said of Tallman, who started on varsity as a freshman. "This year she's brought this level of defense to her game that has really helped us stay in matches and win some matches."

Stevenson also received 4 kills and 2 assisted blocks from Kierstyn Hansen and 3 kills from Rachel Baader. McDonough set 30 of 31 with 15 assists, and libero Nicole Duszczyk recorded 13 digs.