Schaumburg benefits from quick fix
Senior Alexandria Jackson and her Schaumburg girls volleyball teammates had just one objective going into their third game against Fremd in Thursday's Class 4A Buffalo Grove sectional semifinal.
"We had too many unforced errors in Game 2," said Jackson, who had 7 kills, 5 blocks and 2 aces. "We knew what we had to do and fixed it."
The Mid-Suburban League champions (30-9) repaired things quite well and went on to claim a 25-12, 19-25, 25-14 victory over Fremd (27-11).
Gabrielle Blackwell put down a match-high 10 kills, while Drewann Pancratz directed the Saxons' offense and collected 12 digs.
Top-seeded Schaumburg went ahead 12-8 in Game 3 on 4 serve points (2 aces) by Monica Sanchez (13 digs) and never looked back. The lead increased to 19-11 shortly after on a block by Gryte Satas, who had 4 for the match.
Fremd was led by Dani Warner (6 kills), Kaitlyn Pascus (5) and Stephanie Alesi (5), while Natalie Bruck (14 assists) and Michelle Gonnella (7) quarterbacked the offense.
Gonnella served out Game 2 with 4 straight points, including 2 aces.
"We just kept getting better during the season," said Vikings senior middle hitter Bridget Morton. "We made huge improvements."
The No. 5-seeded Vikings fell behind 3-0 in Game 2 but rallied to a 3-3 tie behind the serve of Pascus.
Fremd took the lead for good at 13-12, then Alesi served 3 straight points (Warner had a kill and a block for two of them) to take a 16-12 lead.
"Schaumburg is a strong team," Morton said. "And we just didn't find ways to get around them. We gave them some tough games, but not tough enough."
Game 3 was tied at 8-8 when the Saxons pulled away to a 12-8 advantage and never looked back.
"Game 3 got away from us a little," said Fremd coach Curt Pinley, who guided the Vikings to their fourth 20-win season in five years. "When you're playing a team like Schaumburg, you can't let it get too far ahead. Then we just couldn't reel them back in.
"I thought we played real well in Game 2, the same way we'd been playing here late in the season. Obviously, we had the jitters in Game 1."
Defensively, the Vikings were led by Patricia Fehr (28-of-29 serve receiving, 5 digs), Sarah Welsh (15-of-15 serve receiving, 3 digs) and Alesi (8-of-9 serve receiving, 7 digs). Colleen Andersen added 3 digs.
Libertyville d. Conant: The Libertyville girls volleyball team took a clinical approach in its semifinal against Conant.
The Wildcats were efficient in all aspects and were often content to keep points alive and let the Cougars make the mistakes.
The result was a convincing 25-15, 25-17 victory.
Libertyville went on to win its second consecutive sectional title by beating Schaumburg 25-22, 11-25, 25-19.
Wildcats coach Chris Trzyna liked the way her team (33-6) attacked Conant.
"We were able to put the balls in the areas they were giving us," she said.
The Wildcats were able to run a great deal of offense through their middles, as seniors Ali Haws and Lexie Gibbons had 9 and 6 kills, respectively.
Conant senior Michelle Kopecky had a team-high 8 kills.
"We always had to know where she was on the court," Trzyna said.
Other than the play of Kopecky, there were very few bright spots for Conant. The sixth-seeded Cougars finished 22-15 record.
"We were out of synch and we never got in the flow of the match," Conant coach Peggy Scholten said. "We made too many unforced errors."
Conant's best stretch of play came early in the second game. The Cougars led 8-5 and the Wildcats did not take their first lead until 10-9. From there, Libertyville controlled the rest of the game. Gibbons supplied the exclamation point with a powerful block that increased the Wildcats' advantage to 21-13.
Conant junior Tricia Kutrumanes finished with 16 assists.
Although the Cougars will lose Kopecky to graduation, they return the majority of players who played key roles in their regional title.
"We didn't play at the level we played at the last two weeks, but we're still young," Scholten said. "We'll focus on a great regional win and bring that into next season."
-- Bob Gosman