Hersey tops Lake Zurich for tourney triumph

Hersey senior Lindsay Boivin was playing on the junior varsity girls volleyball team a year ago.

Saturday, in the 37th annual Hersey Invite, the 5-foot-10 right-side hitter was making only her second varsity start.

But if you watched the final point of the championship match, you would have never known she wasn’t a varsity veteran.

Boivin took the 245th set of the tourney from Abby Fesl and slammed it to the floor to give Hersey its third straight title of its own invite.

Despite dropping the first set, the Huskies rallied for a 19-25, 25-19, 25-21 triumph over Lake Zurich, the same team Hersey defeated in three sets for the title a year ago.

“It’s the best feeling I’ve had in volleyball in a long time,” said Boivin, who had 3 kills in the tourney. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It feels amazing.”

Huskies coach Nancy Lill got an amazing tournament from senior Kelsey Haas, who put down 56 kills with a .400 hitting percentage.

“Unbelievable day for Kelsey,” Lill said. “For a kid who just had shoulder surgery six months ago, that’s great.”

It didn’t look too great for Hersey (14-3) when Lake Zurich (12-4) scored 7 of the last 8 points to win the first set 25-19. Amelia Leng, Layne Self and setter Kristen Walding each had kills during the winning rally for the Bears.

“I was a little nervous then,” Haas admitted. “But I knew we had a strong team and we could back. When we finally did it, it was an awesome feeling.”

Set 2 was close all the way and tied at 18-18 when Hersey got the lead for good on a kill by Haas.

Taylor Schill served the final 4 points of the set which finished with a kill by Maggie Hogen and Schill’s ace.

In the decisive third set, Hersey jumped in front 8-4 but Lake Zurich closed to within 10-9 on a block by Natalie Gora.

A block by Kristen Pedersen and service point by Schill grace Hersey an 18-14 cushion.

Pedersen finished the tourney with 38 kills.

“Kristen was phenomenal all-around in the tourney and Abby distributed the ball great,” Lill said. “Taylor (Schill, 17 digs) always anchors the defense.”

A tip by Pedersen gave Hersey its biggest lead of the Set 3 at 22-16. The Bears missed two serves down the stretch and never got closer than 3 points (24-21) before Boivin ended the match.

“Lindsay Boivin did a nice job,” Lill said. “It was a huge win for us. We came out flat in Set 1. But I knew the girls wanted to win this match after losing to Lake Zurich in the postseason last year.

“Being the last Hersey Invite for our seniors, it was great to see them turn it around from Set 1 and pull it out. At the end, it was just a matter of us making the fewer errors.”

The Bears committed 18 hitting errors and 5 service errors in the match.

“I thought we outplayed them but we made too many hitting errors,” said Bears coach Matt Aiello, a former Buffalo Grove standout volleyball player. “I thought we played with a little more ball control. We blocked them well. But we beat ourselves.”

Walding (4 kills) had 30 assists in the match as Self led the attack with 10 kills, followed by Gora (9), Amanda Orchard (8) and Leng (5).

“Leng (4 blocks) and Self (2 blocks) were awesome in the middle, “ said Bears coach Matt Aiello.

“I’m OK with the tournament. Today is September 17. We worry about late October, early November. Our communication was a little better this tournament. We were a little tentative in Sets 2 and 3 and that caused us to force some errors.”

Schaumburg (8-6) defeated Mundelein 25-12, 27-25 for third place as the Saxons were led on attack by Kelly Koutnik (27 kills), Bria Hailey (15), Meghan Falsey (12), Jenna Gerber (10) and Allison McGinn (5).

Falsey handed out 36 assists while Sam Mellert had 25 for Schaumburg which was 3-2 in the tourney.

Hoffman Estates also went 3-2 in the tourney and won the consolation championship with an 18-25, 25-21, 25-21 triumph over Glenbard North.

Destinee Young (33 kills), Becca Stoczynski (27) and Becky Knapik (13) led the Hawks attack, which was set by Karina Zopl (185-189, 73 assists). Zolp also served 8 aces while Young had 4 and Stoczynski 3.

“We definitely improved this tournament,” said the 6-foot junior Stoczynski. “Our defense was better and that helps the offense. Hopefully this could be a turning point for us.”

St. Viator Invite: Conant (6-10) went 4-1 in the 12-team tourney and took third place with a 21-25, 25-22, 15-13 victory over Immaculate Conception.

Jenn Donnell (35 kills), Allie Bauch (19) and Morgan Peterson (14) led Conant’s attack which was set by Taylor Levitt (39 assists) and Suzi Loznjakovic (36 assists). Rachael Yordon had a team-high 58 digs and 10 aces.

St. Viator (2-3 in the tourney) defeated Von Steuben 25-17, 25-20 for seventh place while Elk Grove went 0-4.

Glenbard West tourney: Host Glenbard West (19-1) posted a 25-16, 25-12 victory over Fremd in the championship match of the 31st annual Hilltopper Invite.

Earlier in the day, the Vikings (11-5) topped Northside Prep 25-15, 25-16 and stopped Geneva 25-17, 22-25, 25-16 in the championship semifinals.

Glenbard West’s only loss this season is to Hinsdale Central in three games.

Prospect (5-6) went 3-2 in the tourney, notching wins over Glenbard East, Streamwood and Morton.

Top attackers in the five matches for the Knights were Sage Rebecca (26 kills), Laura Yearian (20), Amanda Cipek (15) and Maura Benson (130 while Danielle Siwik (44 assists) and Shea Gallus (48) directed the offense.

Gallus also led the team with 26 digs while Siwik led with 11 aces. Benson was tops with 11 blocks.