It’s plain to see, BG sure can play

The Buffalo Grove girls volleyball team is celebrating the career of its coach Marianne O’Shea, who is retiring after directing the program for the past six years.

To help send out O’Shea with a few extra memories, senior setter Kathy Hampton came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt last week where O’Shea had to find her varsity players hiding in various places surrounding the gymnasium before practice.

On Tuesday night in their Mid-Suburban East match with visiting Rolling, the Bison were hardly hiding from their opponent.

They stood out huge in Set 3 — especially senior libero Victoria Ito, who made some spectacular plays to finish with a career-high 21 digs — and came away with a 25-23, 24-26, 25-15 victory on “Volley For the Cure” night.

“We all really wanted to play well because we want second place in our division,” said Hampton, who handed out a match-high 31 assists, including some nifty no-look over-the-head quick sets. “It was just a team effort.”

It was also a “team effort” that put together the “Volley for the Cure” festivities. The committee was led by varsity players Mary Guth and Kelly Kowal, and lower level players Jamie Hillner and Katie Schumacher.

The varsity players in the “Buddies” program worked with their freshman and sophomores on projects to make the night a success.

“The whole committee did a great job getting this together,” O’Shea said. “Everyone helped.”

“We all just wanted to give back to the community and do what we can for breast cancer awareness,” said Ito, whose spirited play hardly went unnoticed.

She made an incredible one-handed fist save on a rocket attack by the Mustangs’ Morgan Keller, which resulted in a kill by Paige Smith (9 kills for the match) in Set 3.

Later in the set, she made a sliding save on another bullet which set up a kill by Alyssa Mills to give BG a 21-14 lead.

“She (Ito) was phenomenal,” said Mustangs coach Janet Opels. “She took a lot of points away from us.”

And she took the match by serving an ace for the final point.

Buffalo Grove (10-12) imropved to 5-2 in the East while Meadows is now 13-10 and 4-3.

“I don’t think there is a libero like her (Ito),” O’Shea said. “She’s unbelievable. She is such a treat to have on the court. She is so supportive of everyone and so positive.”

Meadows won the first meeting against Buffalo Grove in three sets. Of the six sets the two teams have played, four have been decided by 2 points.

But the Bison were able to finally breath easy in Set 3.

“We were just playing together and we knew it could mean second place for us,” Hampton said.

“It was a special night with “Volley for the Cure” and we knew we had to stay focused, Ito added.

Junior middle blocker Bailey North led the Bison attack with 11 kills, followed by Smith (9), Alaina Murphy (5) and Mary Zawlocki (4). Murphy also served 6 aces while Ito had 2 and Guth 1.

Meadows was led by Keller’s 9 kills and 5 from Rachel Mickey. Jenny Vliet (12 assists) and Olivia Falk (7) directed the offense while Kelly Sarussi and Veronica Drabowski each had 2 aces.

“I thought Abbey Hill went in and did a real nice job defensively and serving (9-of-9) ,” Opels said. “We’ve just got to get away from where we’re spotting teams too many points and then having to come back.”

O’Shea’s Bison are enjoying one of their best conference seasons since she took over the program.

“It’s been fun,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a more wonderful group of girls to go out with.”

Barrington d. Palatine: Peyton Lang (8 kills), Olivia Szuszkiewicz (7) and Julia Thompson (5) led first-place Barrington (18-2, 7-0) to a 25-15, 25-16 MSL West victory.

Lauren Shechtman led the Fillies with 3 blocks while Szuszkiewicz had 2 along with 12 digs.

Lauren Dunseith (2 aces) ran the offense with 20 assists while Amanda Dee had 8 digs and 3 aces against the Pirates (8-12, 2-5).

Hersey d. Prospect: Kelsey Haas (9 kills), Maggie Hogen (5), Kristen Pedersen (5) and Lindsay Boivin (4) led Hersey (18-3, 7-0) in a 25-13, 25-17 MSL East win. Abby Fesl handed out 24 assists while Taylor Schill collected 10 digs against the Knights (8-12, 2-5).

Wheeling d. Elk Grove: Kellie Kuzmanic (12 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks) and Mayra Ocampo (5 kills, 5 digs, 2 aces) led the Wildcats (3-18, 1-6) attack as they won their first match in the MSL East 25-21, 21-25, 25-23.

Joanna Stankowicz added 4 kills for the winners while Sara Kern had 3 and Cayla Iwaniak (2). Teammate Amanda Mullin handed out 27 assists with 6 digs.

Elk Grove (7-18, 2-5) was led by Diamond Boyd (13 kills), Melanie DeWitt (7) and Krista Soesbe (4).

Fremd d. Hoffman Estates: Jessi Wiedemann (5 kills) and Rebecca Clarke (3) paced Fremd (14-6, 5-2) in a 25-14, 25-22 victory as Marilyn Lortz directed the Vikes’ offense with 14 assists. Taryn Lemp and Lane Hindenburg each served 3 aces.

Hoffman (7-20, 0-7) was led by Clare Shaffer (6 kills), Destinee Young (4 kills) and Becca Stoczynski (3).

Conant d Schaumburg: Jenn Donnell (10 kills), Allie Bauch (7), Michelle Lauterbach (6) and Morgan Peterson 2) were top attackers for Conant (9-12, 3-4) in a 24-26, 25-21, 25-21 victory. Bauch led the Cougars with 20 digs while Rachael Yordon had 18.

Schaumburg (11-9, 4-3) was paced by Kiara Lewis (8 kills), Kelly Koutnik (87), Meghan Falsey (5) and Jenna Gerber (5).

Joliet Catholic d. St. Viator: Joliet Catholic won the ESCC match 25-18, 25-14 as Lauren Falotico led the Lions with 4 kills and setter Emily Williams had 8 assists.