Girls volleyball: Loyola stops Hersey's run

Loyola's experience won out over a youthful Hersey team on Tuesday night at the Maine South Class 4A girls volleyball sectional semifinal in Park Ridge.

The senior-dominated Ramblers (26-8), seeded No. 2, advanced to the sectional title match for the second year in a row with a 25-17, 25-14 victory over the No. 3 Huskies (28-10).

Hersey finished as Mid-Suburban East, MSL and regional champions.

"We had our backs against the wall to defeat Prospect for the MSL East and we had our backs to the wall to defeat Palatine for the MSL (championship)," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "We gave it our best shot this match but it wasn't enough."

The Ramblers had enough firepower and finesse to get past a Hersey team that sported eight key players with limited varsity playing time, if any, only a year ago.

"We have a lot coming back," Lill said. "But we also have some big shoes to fills."

One set of shoes belongs to senior Liz Fuerst, the Huskies' power-hitting outside hitter who led the way Tuesday with 5 kills.

"I thought Liz played a great match," Lill said. "She did everything she could to keep us in it."

"No. 23 (Fuerst) is a skilled player," said Loyola coach Mark Chang. "We had two things we needed to do - serve tough and use our resources to get past their block. We wanted to play fast and deliberate, and we did."

The Ramblers did it with sharp setting and superb setting by senior co-captian Katie Randolph, who had 19 assists and 4 kills which kept the Huskies defense off balance.

"We weren't ourselves defensively," Lill said. "It was a frustrating way to end the season. We did not adjust to their 'soft' offense."

Hersey came back from a 4-1 deficit in Set 1 for a 5-5 tie when sophomore Amy Morgan's attack skimmed off the top of the net and dropped to the floor on the Loyola side.

But senior Melanie Fyda put down a side-out kill and then served 2 aces to give the Ramblers some breathing room at 8-5. They continued to mix up their offense between tips and smashes and the lead grew to 20-12 on a service point by junior Emma Stevens.

Senior co-captain Christina Reed, who led Loyola with 11 kills, put down one off a blockers' hands to end the set at 25-17.

Set 2 started out fairly close until the Ramblers ran off 7 straight points from the serve of Autumn Bascon-O'Connell to pull away 12-4.

The junior defensive specialist had 2 of her team's 5 aces during the run.

"It was our defense that gave us the runs," Chang said. "Our back row defense controlled a lot of the situations."

Controlling the Huskies' attack as usual were underclassmen Emma Strozewski (7 assists) and Maggie Riesel (4 assists).

Morgan and Katie Rozanski each contributed 3 kills for Hersey while Zoe Strozewski had 1 along with a kill block.

Junior libero Emma Frankiewicz collected 12 digs in the back row and classmate Liz Solans had 10.

"I just feel so honored to play in a sectional and so proud of this team," Morgan said. "We accomplished so much together. Even though we lost this match, I am so proud having played with seniors and looking forward to next year."

Fuerst was one of five seniors along with Rozanski, Gianna Carusiello, Dani Havel and Carley Chiodo.

"It was a great senior group and we had great leadership," Lill said. "Gianna wasn't even on the varsity last year and look what's she done. Dani is nerves of steels. She missed almost all of last season with mono and a concussion and then comes back and contributes so much this season."

Havel was glad to be part of the yet another stellar Hersey season in which the Huskies' 28 wins increased Lill's career total to 895.

"We had a strong 'team' and everyone supported each other," Havel said. "That's what contributed to the wins. We don't focus on individuals but the team as a whole."