Baader’s a hit as Stevenson tops Hersey

After Stevenson had dropped the opening game to Hersey, Patriots junior Rachel Baader decided to take matters into her own hands.

Baader had 13 of her match-high 16 kills in the last two games to lead the Patriots to a 20-25, 25-23, 25-16 victory over the Huskies on Tuesday night in the Class 4A Buffalo Grove sectional semifinals.

Stevenson (30-8) advances to play in Thursday’s sectional final against top seed Lake Forest (32-4), which swept Lake Zurich in the evening’s first match.

“Halfway through the first game, we really started to get our serving going,” Baader said. “Coming out in the beginning, we were nervous because we knew Hersey was such a great team. Halfway through the first game, we started working like a well-oiled machine.”

The Huskies won the first game in which both teams were battling nerves. Kelsey Haas (13 kills) gave Hersey its biggest lead at 18-12 before holding off a furious Stevenson comeback in which the Patriots tied the score at 20-20.

But Stevenson regrouped in the second game behind the play of Baader to lead by as many as 6 points early on.

“We were flat and made a lot of unforced errors,” said Stevenson coach Tim Crow. “We knew that we had to get the ball to Rachel more because she is going to give us that jump start. She was able to do that.”

The Huskies had trouble all night hitting around Stevenson’s front line of 6-foot-4 Kara Maleski, 6-1 Jenna Radtke and 5-11 Michelle Schroeder.

“They have been such a solid rock for us all year long,” Crow said. “They really anchor the net for us. That’s been one of our strongest assets all year.”

Hersey coach Nancy Lill felt like the Huskies didn’t play at their best, partly due to four starters missing practice time in the last week. Haas (shoulder injury), Kristen Pedersen (illness), Erica Hill (back injury) and Lindsay Boivin (ankle injury) all hadn’t practiced since Thursday.

“We were fine until Game 3,” Lill said. “I think the adrenaline could only carry us so far. We kind of ran out of energy. Stevenson played a great match. They started playing a little bit smarter and more aggressively, and we made a lot of errors.”

While Hersey (31-6) had aspirations to go to state, one loss won’t overshadow a season in which the team went 10-0 in the Mid-Suburban East.

“With the adversity that we faced, we knew that it was going to be an uphill battle, especially this match,” Lill said. “There were so many high points and so few low points. I’m proud of my girls.”