Straup struts her stuff as Fremd's surge continues

Holly Straup has proved she can adjust, no matter the sport.

And her Fremd girls volleyball team has proved its late-season surge is no fluke.

With Straup now playing a key back row and serving role, the Vikings have won 15 of their last 18 games after a 25-21, 25-23 victory over visiting Rolling Meadows in Tuesday's Mid-Suburban League third-place crossover match.

In softball, Straup made a smooth transition from catcher on coach Jim Weaver's varsity to playing third base.

"Holly has done a great job switching to the back row," said Fremd coach Curt Pinley who began the season with Straup as a setter in a 6-2 offense before switching up things about midway through the campaign. "She is doing a nice job defensively and serving."

Straup, a senior, had key services in each set to help the Vikes improve to 22-8 overall while Rolling Meadows stands at 20-14-1.

"I think we just got to know each other and have bonded well," Straup said of the Vikings' momentum after a 7-5 start to the season. "This is the best we've been playing all season which is good for late in the season. And I love playing back row."

Fremd was nursing a 20-19 lead when Straup served 3 points to give the Vikes some breathing room at 23-19.

Meadows got back to within 23-21 before the hosts closed it out on kills by junior setter Natalie Freund (24 assists) and outside hitter Ysabel Lee, who tied teammate Sara Ganas for match honors with 8 kills apiece. Bailey Hooker added 4 kills for Fremd.

The busiest server for the Vikes was Straup, who ended up 15-of-16. Although she had no aces, she is second on the team with 23 behind Freund (33).

Straup's 225 serves are third most on the team behind Freund and junior libero Karolina Sas.

"It's nerve-wracking," Straup said of serving, "but's it very rewarding when you do well."

"Holly had some very key serves for us," Pinley added. "She has been very consistent."

Just like Sas was very steady in the back row, collecting 15 digs and was 19-of-19 passing.

"Karolina did a really nice job," Pinley said "Her defense was a key to the match. She did a really nice job keeping the ball of the floor against a very scrappy Rolling Meadows team."

"They had a libero (Sas) who made it really tough on us," said Mustangs assistant coach Elliott Olson, whose team was led on attack by Maddie Sellergren, Megan Mich and Hannah Mickey (3 kills apiece.).

"We didn't come out with a lot of intensity," the coach added. "We had some plays that could have gone the other way if we were little more emotionally invested. This is always a tough match to play at the end of the regular season and before the state playoffs."

Sellegren also had 6 digs, as did teammate Paige Connor.

"Maddie was really crushing the ball in the first set," Olson added. "They were just right at people. When we clicked and hit our spots, we made it tough on a good team on the other side of the net."

The Mustangs made it very tough on Fremd in Set 2 when they took a 17-11 lead, getting a strong service run from Megan King, which included an ace. King ended up with 8 assists while Mich had 6. Jenny Srnak and Meghan Slowik each had a block for Meadows.

Fremd came back from the 6-point deficit behind a good serve run by Freund, who got 3 kills along the way from Lee to pull the Vikes into an 18-18 tie.

The set was tied at 12, 20, 22 before Fremd took charge for good when Freund lifted a 12-foot set to Ganas for a big kill and 23-22 lead.

An alert Sas made a terrific dig on a hard-hit kill by Meadows. It went over the net and fell to the floor to set up match point. Ganas' service point ended it.