Girls volleyball: Hersey closes the gap, but Fremd comes out on top again
Fremd girls volleyball coach Pete Gavin says Harper Neill is her own harshest critic.
After a 25-22, 25-23 victory over host Hersey on Tuesday night, Neill had absolutely no criticism of the Huskies who the Vikings defeated for the third time this season.
"They're a great team," the sophomore and two-year varsity player said. "So obviously it's a lot of fun paying them."
No one was having more fun than Neill, who led the Vikings with 7 kills and 9 digs.
It was the closest of the three matches thus far between the two teams ranked among the Daily Herald Top 20.
"We knew that team was better than what we saw the first two times," Gavin said. "They are extremely talented. Their libero (junior Freya McBride) plays out of this world. They've got really good athletes. No. 4 (Macey Teuscher) is really a load on the outside. So we knew it was going to be a tough match."
It was a match in which Fremd (18-5, 5-1) wanted to bounce back from its first MId-Suburban East loss last week at Buffalo Grove and maintain its tie for first place with Barrington (12-7, 5-1).
"We definitely talked about that as a team and we said we still have time to adjust and get better," Neill said. "We definitely want to win the conference and work toward that in practice."
Niell was working hard from the start. Her outstanding diving dig set up a kill by Greta Thompson to give Fremd a 7-3 lead in Set 1. It was 8-3 before Hersey closed to within 9-7 on a kill by freshman Morgan Matteucci.
Vikings senior Cali Clark got her team back in charge with 5 straight service points, aided by 2 kills and a block from Neill for a 15-7 cushion.
The lead grew to 16-8 on a kill from Marceluna Cebulla.
But Hersey (10-9, 3-3) rallied within 19-18, thanks to a service point from Teuscher.
A sideout kill by Neill followed by 2 service points from freshman Reese Wallen put the visitors in front 21-18.
Senior Emily Karmazin's kill got Fremd to 23-20 and it was 24-21 when Hersey staved off two set points on kills from Mahi Vullakula and Teuscher before Akshara Jay (4 kills, 8 assists) fired home the set-winner.
Set 2 was tight all the way, tied at 6, 8, 9, 12, and 14 before the Vikes went ahead 15-14 when Madison Drenth (8 assists) set Thompson for one of her 5 kills.
Fremd extended the cushion to 19-15 on Jay's service point. Jay later set senior Zoey Bending (4 kills) for a kill that made 21-19 but Hersey came back and tied it at 23 with back-to-back kills by Teuscher.
Fremd put it away with a kill from Karmazin (2 blocks) and a hitting error by Hersey.
"It was a huge turnaround from the first time we played them (25-12, 25-8) and even the second time (25-15, 25-23)," said Hersey coach Laura Gerber. "We just couldn't stop their offense no matter what we were doing.
"I thought my libero (McBride) did a great job digging a ton of balls. (Macey Teuscher and Morgan Matteucci) had a couple of nice shots in important spots. So all the way around, I thought everyone did a nice job and worked as hard as they could. We just couldn't finish."
After Neill's 9 digs, other leaders for the Vikes' defense were Newton (8 digs) and libero Ella Castelloni (5).
"Their defense is fantastic," Gerber added. "It's not one kid chasing the ball, it's three. It’s fantastic. They're super strong. These guys are so talented."
"That's (defense) something I knew from the beginning of the year that serve, serve receive and defense was going to be our strength and it has to be," Gavin said. "We've got some size in the middle but not a whole lot elsewhere.
"I'm getting used to Harper (Neill) playing the way she did on defense and offense. She might have the highest volleyball IQ of anyone I've ever coached. She is just so smart and sees the court so well. She constantly wants to get better and she is her harshest critic for sure."