Marquette Manor Minutemen girls volleyball win eighth IACS tournament championship

Downers Grove’s Marquette Manor Baptist Academy girls varsity volleyball won the Illinois Association of Christian Schools (IACS) Championship on Saturday, Oct. 26, hosted at Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville.

The Minutemen entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed and won three matches on the weekend to claim the eighth IACS Varsity Volleyball title in school history.

In their quarterfinal match-up with Logos Christian (Niles) on Friday Oct. 25, the Minutemen cruised to a two-set victory, 25-14/25-16.

Their offense was led by sophomore Jasmine Adeoti (Bolingbrook) with seven kills. Kami Coffey’s (Woodridge) serve was lethal with seven aces.

The Minutemen struggled from the service line in their semifinal match-up on Friday night with Faith Bible Christian (Rosamond), but Adeoti swung her way to 17 kills, followed by Kate Scalzitti’s (Downers Grove) 10.

The defense helped save the day behind 15 digs from Sophie Mukenschnabl (Darien) and two blocks from Brie Kamibayashiyama (Lemont). They eked out a three-set victory, 25-20, 22-25 and 25-19.

Saturday’s championship opponent was First Baptist Academy (O’Fallon). Marquette had defeated First Baptist Academy earlier in the season, and the Minutemen also won the back-and-forth three set final match, 28-26, 23-25 and 25-21.

Setter Emma Scalzitti (Downers Grove) spread the offense around with 16 assists on the Minutemen’s 32 kills. The defense came through strong again as Mukenschnabl had 23 digs, and Caroline Sims (Westmont) contributed three blocks in the final set.

Three Minutemen were named to the All-Tournament 1st Team: Jasmine Adeoti (sophomore), Sophie Mukenschnabl (junior), and Emma Scalzitti (senior).

Marquette finished their season with a record of 20-6, led by coaches Jill Scalzitti (third IACS title for Marquette) and Kerry Burckart (first IACS title for Marquette).