Girls volleyball notes: Gavin brothers making history in MSL; Buffalo Grove’s coming on strong

For the first time in Mid-Suburban girls volleyball history, its two divisions have head coaches who are brothers.

Not only that, their teams are on top of the divisional standings.

Furthermore, Dan Gavin (Palatine) and Pete Gavin (Fremd) are teachers in the same special education department at Palatine High School, the same school from which they graduated as volleyball stars.

Their father Bill attends many of his son's games.

"He comes to as many matches as he can," Pete said. "Whenever we play Palatine, he wears a shirt that says Fremd on the front and Palatine on the back so he is representing both."

Bill played basketball at Quigley North High School and St. Benedict and then played college basketball at Loyola University for coach George Ireland, a few years after he brought Illinois its only college basketball championship in 1963.

Now Dan and Pete, who both studied special education and played club volleyball at Illinois State, love to guide their high school teams to championships in the MSL where they've gone against each twice a year while in the MSL West the last four years.

However, with the new division formats this fall, the only way their team could face each other would be for the league title.

"It would be fun but we've got a lot of work to do," said Pete, whose Fremd team is currently tied with Barrington (both were 5-1 at the start of the week) for first place in the East. "There are a lot of good teams on this side of the conference."

"A lot of my best friends went to Fremd so the whole Fremd/Palatine rivalry is more fun than being serious or giving each other a hard time about it. Obviously I'm always rooting for him (Dan) except for when they play us."

When Pete played in high school, he was an all-state setter at Palatine and his 2004 team took fourth in the state under coach Joyce Richardson, who is now the assistant coach to Dan.

And guess who was Richardson's assistant for that team?

"I was actually Joyce's assistant for Pete's junior and senior years so it's kind of a full-circle deal," Dan Gavin said.

Dan, a 1998 graduate of Palatine, played three years on varsity for coach Curt Pinley, who won more than 1,000 combined matches as a Fremd girls coach and Palatine and Fremd boys coach in a 30-year career.

Dan was an all-conference middle hitter, with his Palatine teams winning at least 20 matches in all three of his years playing for Pinley.

Dan's Pirates improved to 19-6 on Monday with a 25-19, 25-19 win over Lake Zurich.

Pete's Vikings are 18-5 and hosts Barrington in a MSL East showdown on Thursday.

Barrington: The Fillies went 2-3 at the talent-laden Asics Invite at Mother McAuley. Coach Michelle Mayer said they were led by standout performances across the board. Kalyn Brookbank powered the offense with an impressive 76 kills. Eve Adler anchored the attack with 90 assists, showing great command at the setter position. Ella Krull led the defensive effort with 36 digs.

Maine South: The Hawks (16-6, 3-1) entered the week winners of eight of their last 10. Their losses were to Glenbrook North and Loyola.

"Both of those teams are very solid and well rounded, and both are playing great volleyball right now," said Hawks coach Jon Weiland. "We had two big wins in three-set matches at York and vs. Glenbrook South."

After losing the first set to GBS 25-9, the Hawks made some minor adjustments to the lineup.

"The girls were able to put that game aside, and adjust to the changes and fought to force a third set," Weiland said. "We ran away with that final set (25-14) after starting with an 8-0 run on Teagan Heneghan's serve."

Safia Orucevic led the Hawks' offense with some big games (13 kills vs. York, 16 kills vs. Loyola and 11 kills vs. GBS).

Emma Lesch and Sophie Burda have combined to pass a 1.80 in serve receive throughout the season.

"We're looking forward to the second round of conference play," Wieland said. "And I think we are in a great spot to make a run at a CSL South championship."

St. Viator: The Lions' Volley for a Cure match with Wheeling on Oct. 1 raised more than $7,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

St. Viator (14-7) also celebrated Senior Night on Oct. 2 with a decisive victory over Elmwood Park.The Lions also defeated Libertyville in two sets on Sept. 25 and played a tight match with Maxpreps' No. 1 team in Illinois, Marist, falling 25-19, 27-25 Sept. 30.

Over their four matches before a loss to Stevenson on Monday, coach Charlie Curtin's Lions' received 36 kills from Erin Lynch and 22 from Avery Albritton. Lynch also has 6 aces while Gabriella Vitullo and Abigail Sheldon each have 4. Olive Meyers has 45 assists and Rose Berlen has 34 assists while Sheldon has collected 26 digs and Grace Geary 6 blocks.

Buffalo Grove: Coach Tara Braceros directed the Bison (12-11) to second place at the Glenbrook North tourney last weekend. On Friday, they finished second in pool play behind the host Spartans (lost 25-13, 15-25) and defeated Niles North (25-20, 25-22) and Leyden (25-14, 25-14).

In the crossover brackets, they played the No. 1 seed in the other pool, York, and won 25-22, 25-17. GBN defeated BG in the championship match.

Senior outside Amelia Palubski and junior libero Ava Lo Verde were selected to the all-tourney team for BG. Lo Verde finished the tournament with 31 digs, 3 aces, and 4 assists while Palubski collected 15 kills, 2 aces, 20 digs and 1 block. Bison sophomore setter Alex Tohter had 68 assists, 2 aces and 13 digs.

Rolling Meadows: Mustangs junior setter Lainey Griffiths has continued to be stellar in a leadership role and running the offense while junior outside hitter Bella Zielinski recently reached the 250 kill mark as well as reaching 50 aces over the weekend as the top point scorer for the Mustangs.

"We have hit a tough stretch in our schedule where we have played some great volleyball," said Mustangs coach Jack Nickle. "But have had a little bit of a hard time closing out some competitive matches."

Schaumburg: Outside hitter Avery Duever is leading the Saxons (8-12, 2-4) in multiple categories. Her 24 aces from 149 attempts are a team high. Her 1.88 serve receive rating (206 attempts) leads the team as does her 162 kills from 460 attempts, good for a .117 hitting percentage. Duever is second with 12 blocks and third with 110 digs.

Wheeling: Coach Jason Kopkowski's Wildcats improved to 15-8 with a 25-22, 25-21 win at St Viator. The win over the 14-6 Lions was the Wildcats' eighth in 10 matches.

Hoffman Estates: The Hawks, 9-17 on the season, have lost many close games, including a 32-30 third set loss to Wheeling. Coach Pat Moran said 6-foot-1 senior Nadia Nowak has emerged as a great attacker as she is leading the Hawks in blocks and kills.

Prospect: The Knights (11-11) played eight matches, including a third-place finish (3-2) in their own Pifer Invite. "This week was very fun for the girls, especially our match vs Rolling Meadows," said Knights coach Alaina Mowinski. "It was also our Volley of the Cure match which drew a big crowd."

Mowinski said her team looked great Saturday morning.

"We have a sophomore defensive specialist (Lila Zlydaszyk) who stepped it up at the tournament and played libero for most of the tournament," she added. "Some big hitters for us at the tournament were Alli Linke and Anna Range."

Leyden: Coach Emmett O'Keefe says the Eagles (4-18) have struggled to find wins the last few weeks. "We are looking for more consistency and execution on both defense and offense as we start to look towards the playoffs," he said.

Schaumburg Christian: The Conquerors are enjoying a 17-3 season at the start of this week and they are 5-1 in the Northeastern Athletic Conference.

"The girls are playing very consistently," said coach Steve Burmaster.

At the end of the week, the Conquerors are leaving for Grand Rapids, Mich., for a campus tour at Cornerstone University, where Burmaster was the head women's volleyball coach from 2002 to 2009.

Burmaster said the Conquerors will watch Cornerstone play a home match Friday and then play a scrimmage match Saturday before driving back home that afternoon to Schaumburg.