Lake Zurich moves ahead
The cast is fairly new.
But the Lake Zurich Bears girls volleyball team is back in the big show another Class 4A girls volleyball sectional match.
For the second straight season, coach Matt Aiello's squad has reached the Sweet 16, this time stopping No. 2 seeded Hersey in Tuesday's semifinal match of the Warren sectional.
The No. 3 Bears played a superb third game and came away with a 25-21, 21-25, 25-16 victory over the Mid-Suburban League champions (31-7).
Junior Amanda Orchard, one of only three girls back from Aiello's nine-player rotation a year ago, put down 6 of her 15 kills in Game 3 and ended the victory with back-to-back aces.
The Bears (26-7) will face No. 4 Stevenson (30-8) in Thursday's 7 p.m. championship
“I don't know if we knew our identity yet when we played (Hersey) the first time (a three-game loss in championship of the Hersey Invite on Sept. 18),” Orchard said. “But for the past four weeks, we have combined together so well as a group. When we were practicing for this match, we knew we had to play with our hearts.”
As usual, senior Alexis Hartman was the heart of the offense, handing out 24 assists from 70-of-70 setting and serving an ace.
She also often found junior Natalie Gora (9 kills) while Layne Self (4 blocks, 2 kills), Amelia Leng (2 blocks), Karlissa Skarb, Ali Summers and Dori Darras (2 blocks, 2 kills) were also big factors in the match.
“We just followed the game plan and put it all together,” Hartman said. “When we get the fan support like we did in this match, nothing can stop us.
“It's so exciting. We just want to go further than last year (defeated Hersey in the Stevenson sectional championship). The key is teamwork and pushing through it. You can't do it as individuals.”
The Bears did it in Game 1 by putting together clutch points at the end.
Hersey drew to within 22-21 on a kill by senior Christine Solans.
But the Bears answered with Orchard's kill, a hitting error by Hersey another kill by Orchard to win it.
Hersey bounced back gamely in Game 2, jumping ahead 3-0 behind 3 service points from Solans.
The Huskies never trailed and put away the game with back-to-back kills by Kristen Pedersen (7 kills, 3 blocks).
“I thought we played with more confidence in game 2,” Solans said. “But Lake Zurich really played well, better than we've even seen them play.”
“They were coming real fast at us,” said Huskies libero Jenni Mueller, who collected 18 digs. “They gave us a lot of different stuff from all different hitters. It took us by surprise.”
Aiello felt his team's offense started rolling midway through Game 2 and carried it into Game 3 when the Bears got ahead a 15-11 on a nice dump by Darras.
“We started finding holes on the court midway through the second game,” Aiello said. “And we had a real nice defensive match. Ali Summers played some unbelievable defense. Dori (Darras) and Alexis (Hartman) made some nice adjustments outside against their outside hitters.”
Junior Kelsey Haas led Hersey with a match-high 18 kills while sophomore Abby Fesl handed out 33 assists from 94 sets.
“The future is very bright,” said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. “Kelsey had a great match. Abby Fesl was great. With the nucleus of our team back, next year is going to be very fun. I wish it could start right now.”
But Lill said she will miss her seniors (Annie Cerniglia, Solans, Danielle Perkins, Mueller and Alexa Stedman, who had 4 kills).
“We will miss them,” the coach said. “They all had great careers at Hersey and left everything on the floor. Jenni has been in our back row for the last four years. It will be tough to see her graduate.”
Perkins finished with 14 digs followed by Solans (12) and Taylor Schill (11).
“We gave it our best shot,” Lill said. “It just wasn't good enough this match. Lake Zurich played really well in Game 3. We gave it a great effort, just not enough. Give Lake Zurich credit. They're an outstanding team and we battled them.”