Cary-Grove rolls to Schaumburg championship
Playing in its final regular-season tournament, Cary-Grove's highly explosive girls volleyball team went out in style at the Schaumburg Invite on Saturday.
The Trojans, who have lost to only one Illinois team all season, required just two games to win all five of their matches en route to the tourney title.
Two of those wins came over St. Charles North.
The first was a 25-19, 25-14 in pool play, then a 25-20, 25-16 triumph in the championship which improved the Trojans record to 26-4.
Three of the Trojans' losses are to out-of-state teams, and the other was to Class 3A Hampshire.
"They are awesome," said St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins, whose team is 17-9. "They have so many weapons, that's why they are successful. They can run a complex offense and that kept us on our toes.
"They have some really good hitters and their setter (Jacksonville State-bound Abbey Heredia) does a great job getting them the ball. And another frustrating thing is that their libero (junior Sam Mainzer. who had 44 digs) is so good. She seems like she is everywhere."
The Trojans seemed to be putting down slams everywhere on the court in the title match.
Co-captain and senior Kayla Klinger took a set from Indiana-bound junior Colleen Smith and blasted it off a block to end the first game.
The Trojans wasted little time asserting themselves in Game 2.
Heredia, also a co-captain, jump served for the first 8 points, including 2 aces.
"Everyone on the floor for us jump serves," said the 5-foot-8 senior. "It's something we worked on all summer - making sure everyone gets off the ground."
Kelly Lamberti (team-high 43 kills and 15 aces in the tourney) displayed her jump serve with authority in Game 1.
The 6-foot junior rifled 4 straight aces to give the Trojans breathing room at 16-10 and the lead grew to 17-10 when senior middle blocker Colleen Hargrove slammed a kill down the line.
"That's the huge thing we've been working on - having more than just a few attackers to go to," said Heredia, who had 99 assists in the five matches. "When we have six players to go to, we can be hard to shut down."
The Trojans were able to get early leads in their games Saturday and that was not by coincidence.
"Our main thing was to jump out early and gets those leads," Heredia said. "But we never talked about winning every match in two games."
The fact that Cary-Grove did was not dismissed by veteran coach Patty Langanis.
"It's very hard to find a team that can play consistent for five matches in a day," said Langanis, who recieved a team-hgih 29 blocks from 6-foot sophomore middle blocker Ashley Rosch. "I was really happy how we didn't have a lot of highs and lows. You appreciate that as a coach."
Hawkins appreciated the play of her 6-foot-1 senior middle blocker Allie Van Dril and 5-foot-2 freshman defensive specialist Alex Gage.
"Allie had a great tournament," Hawkins said. "She gave us a really big block up front and she's a great hitter. And Alex was amazing. She really stepped up on defense. Her serve receive was great. She was a guaranteed pass every time."
The North Stars won a pair of three-game matches over Stevenson and Bartlett in pool play, then defeated Hononegah 22-25, 25-11, 25-15 in the semifinals.
Cary Grove defeated Crystal Lake South 25-21, 25-16 in the semis.
Bartlett (19-8, 1-4 in the tourney) earned its win over the host Saxons 25-22, 25-18.
"We started out slow every match," said Hawks coach Brandon Mueller. "We played well in our second match to St. Charles North (three games) but after that everything went downhill. It seemed like we didn't have the fight we had in that match for the rest of the day."
Mueller liked the play he received from Carly Sahagian.
"I thought she did a real nice job," he said. "But I thought we relied too much on her to do to much for us. She served well, played defense well and she got us numerous kills."