Girls volleyball: Maine East upends St. Viator
St. Viator senior libero Taylor Pfaller produced the longest service run in coach Charlie Curtin's 12 seasons on Monday night.
Her 16 straight points, including 8 aces, led the Lions to a dominant 25-5 win in Set 2 of the Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional semifinal.
Unfortunately for the No. 13 seeded Lions, No. 20 Maine East was able to recover for a 25-22, 5-25, 25-23 triumph.
The Blue Demons (10-17) will face Mid-Suburban East co-champion and No. 4 seed Hersey in Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. semifinal.
"They're (Hersey) a great team," said Maine East coach Rintu Philip. "We're going to have to come out and battle."
That's what the Blue Demons did after Pfaller's big run.
Pfaller (20-of-20 serving with 9 aces) stepped to the line with her team leading 5-2 and didn't leave until the Lions were ahead 21-3.
Top attackers for the Lions were Kate Nottoli (11 kills), Anna Haas (10), Carrie Leazer (8), Lilly LaFleur (6) and Emma Kull (2). They took their cues from setter Erin Aldana (153-of-157, 38 assists). Leazer collected 30 digs followed by Pfaller (16), Nottoli (10), Aldana (8), Maria Torosian (6) and Danielle Panzeca (5).
"We were a very young team with only five seniors but we were able to hold it together this season," said Pfaller, who accomplished her big service run just 40 feet from her future Harper coach Bob Visloet, who was in the stands watching his recruit.
Lions coach Charlie Curtin was without his No. 2 attacker, junior Vicky Gorny, who suffered a broken finger one week earlier.
"It was hard for us this year, losing Vicky for the playoffs, moving up a class from our success (third in the Class 3A tourney) last year, and having a very young lineup," he said. "I want to thank my seniors (Nottoli, Leazer, Pfaller, Haas, Sarah Melone) for all they've done and all the success they've left with the program. They've helped guide the underclassmen for the future. Hopefully we'll have a very good run in the future."
Curtin praised the Blue Demons.
"Maine East came out and took care of things," Curtin said. "They were very scrappy and they got a lot of balls up that I didn't expect.
"Taylor's service run was excellent. She's been a great server and that was fun. It gave us a lot of momentum that I thought we were going to be able to keep. But at the end, they (Maine East) were able to finish."