Prospect nets tourney title

On the final weekend of the regular season, Prospect notched its first girls volleyball invite championship.

After falling in three games to tourney host Buffalo Grove in their first match of the tournament, the Knights rebounded with four straight wins, including an 18-25, 25- 16, 25-18 triumph over Addison Trail.

The Blazers and Knights each finished 4-1; the Knights were awarded the title based on their head-to-head victory.

Immaculate Conception (3-2) was third, followed by Buffalo Grove (3-2), Glenbard North (1-4) and Palatine (0-5).

The Bison (11-24) started their day with a 21-25, 25-18, 27-25 over the Knights.

In that match, Knights senior Mariel Sobey (illness) went to the sidelines and did not play the rest of the invite.

Prospect coach Mike Riedy called upon 5-foot-6 senior defensive specialist Andrea Wehrle to handle an outside hitter.

"She stepped into a new role and did a great job," the coach said. "As a team, we could have played better volleyball. We squeaked by in a few matches with some luck. We played well 50 percent of the time."

Senior Maureen O'Keefe (78 digs, 2 aces) and junior Sarah Hunt (46 kills, 14 digs) were all-tourney selections for Prospect (22-13).

Other leaders for the Knights were Rachel Hunt (47 kills), Danielle Siwick (80 assists) and Abby Homuth (52 assists).

BG was led on attack by Alyssa Feld (38 kills), Alanna Zawlocki (24 kills) and Stacey Jorda (8 kills).

Alex Barrowman collected 40 digs while Angie Lombardo had 22 and Kelly Sommers 13. Sommers also had 12 aces and 37 assists. Sam McCormack dished out 33 assists.

Feld, Sommers and Zawlocki were all-tourney selections for the Bison, who also defeated Palatine and Glenbard North.

The Pirates were represented on the all-tourney team by senior Hannah Guth.

Lake Park Invite: Mid-Suburban League champ Hersey (32-3) took third place by defeating Bartlett 23-25, 25-23, 15-9.

In a rematch of the Mid-Suburban League title match just two days earlier, Hersey defeated fifth-place finisher Fremd 25-12, 25-18 in the quarterfinals before falling in the semifinal to Glenbrook South. The highly-ranked Titans won 25-17, 25-11.

Naperville North defeated Glenbrook South in three games for the title.

"We had a good tourney," said Huskies coach Nancy Lill. "This tourney is always a great tune up for the state playoffs. We played some tough competition and now we have some practice time to prepare for the state run.

"Although we are not happy with the way we played against a very tough Glenbrook South team, going 4-1 and finishing third was a nice way to finish the regular season."

Katie Lill (90-96, 39 kills), Maddie Swan (43-54, 26 kills), Jamie Welter (39-40, 16 kills), Christina Solans (56-70, 24 kills) and Joanna Hoffman (30-32, 12 kills) were top attackers for the Huskies, whose offense was set by Hoffman (358-363,101 assists).

Becca Haraf led the defense with 64 digs while Lill had 36 and Solans 30.

Conant (15-17) took seventh place as Kristen Perschon (28 kills) and Chelsea Vanicek (20) led the attack. Marne Wiklanski handed out 70 assists.

Elk Grove Invite: Coaching his final matches in the Elk Grove gymnasium before stepping down from his post as the school's girls volleyball coach, Joe DiSilvio watched his club take second place.

Amanda Gattone (20 kills), Mel Jarosz (17 kills), Leah Miller (17 kills) and Diamond Boyd (15 kills) led the Grens' attack which was set by Jessica Condon (79 assists). Olivia Roback collected 64 digs and Tara Braceros served 10 aces.

"We couldn't do much better than we did," DiSilvio said. "We almost went 3-0 Saturday (close three-game loss to DeKalb) and I feel like we took our level of play up a notch against a real good team (DeKalb which has a pair of Division players)."