Girls volleyball: Fremd falls in 4A state semifinals
For Fremd it was worth it.
Sure, the result wasn't what the Vikings wanted, but they made the Final Four in girls volleyball.
Making its third-ever Final Four appearance, Fremd ran into the Buzzsaw that is defending State Champion. Marist. The result was a 25-16, 25-13 loss on Friday evening in the final Class 4A State Semifinal at CEFCU Arena in Normal.
"It feels amazing," Fremd coach Pete Gavin said of getting to state. "I know we're a little disappointed, but that's a great team we played. But we had a great group of seniors to get here."
There are eight seniors on this seasons squad.
"This program means a lot to me," senior middle blocker Emily Karmazin said. "We were given the opportunity to go to state and it was worth it putting in all the hours for me and everyone to get here."
It's just tough to match up against the RedHawks. It was the 12th straight win for Marist (35-5) since losing 27-25, 25-19 to Benet Academy on October 14. The RedHawks will get a rematch in Saturday evening State Title game. Benet beat Lockport 25-23, 25-16 in the opening semifinal.
It will also be a rematch of last years Class 4A State Title clash, which was won by Marist 19-25, 25-16, 25-19.
Things started out well for Fremd (31-8) with a 3-1 lead in the first set. But tied at 4-4, the RedHawks went on a 6-0 run and extended the lead to 17-9. The Vikings then had their best streak of the night, going on a 5-0 run, to claw back within 17-14. Senior right side hitter/setter Akshara Jay (5 kills,7 digs, 3 assists) had a kill and sophomore outside hitter Harper Neill (6 kills) added a kill and an ace in the spurt, which forced Marist to take a time out.
"I think we came into this as aggressive as we could," Jay said. "We knew they were a great team. We just had to swing hard and be smart."
But the RedHawks regrouped out of the time out.
"We just had to get back to what we started working on as a group and get back to our game plan," Marist coach Jordan Vidovic said of the time out. "I thought we did and we carried that into the second set as well."
The RedHawks did, ending the opener on an 8-2 burst. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set. Fremd closed within a point, three times, the last of which was 6-5. But Marist answered with an 8-0 run to go up14-5 and eased away to the win.
Taylor Berg led Marist with eight kills. Fellow junior outside hitter Maggie Kurpeikis and senior middle blocker Cassidy Cage each added seven kills, while freshman setter Haven Enselman dished out 20 assists, and senior libero Elayna Davidson added 12 digs for the RedHawks.
Junior setter Madison Drenth had nine assists and Karmazin added a pair of kills and a block for the Vikings.
Fremd will look to rebound against Lockport in the third-place match at approximately 7:25 PM. In t he Vikings two other State Finals appearances, in Class AA in 1987 and in Class 4A in 2019, they placed fourth. The third-place match six seasons ago was a 23-25, 25-22, 25-20 loss to Marist.
The Vikings have six sectional championships in their history, but two of those have come in the past two years, and four of them have happened since 2019.
"As seniors, we have been part of a really, really good fun culture," senior middle blocker Zoey Bending said of playing at Fremd. "It's a really beautiful thing to see and we are all very uplifting to each other."