Stevenson pretty close to perfect vs. Mustangs

It's hard to play a perfect game of volleyball, but Stevenson came awfully close Tuesday.

In their first game against visiting Mundelein, the Patriots collected 11 kills without a single hitting error, and they made only two hitting errors in the entire match. They also missed just one serve all night as they ran their winning streak to 10 by dispatching the Mustangs 25-6, 25-13.

"We pretty much were perfect," Stevenson coach Tim Crow said. "Anytime you can have as many kills as we did in that first game without a hitting error, you've put yourself in a great position."

Keeping with the theme of perfection, several individuals delivered performances either flawless or close to it. Senior setter Hannah Burke passed 23-of-23 -- turning 17 of those opportunities into assists -- while hitting of 3-of-3 with 3 kills and serving 5-of-5. Kelly Hall hit 11-of-11 with 7 kills and served 4-of-4. Mary Kate Fritzsche served 10-of-10 with 3 aces and hit 10-of-11 with 3 kills. Margaret Salata hit 4-of-5 with 3 kills and had 3 aces on 10-of-11 serving. Amanda Fleishman hit 7-of-7 with 4 kills. Michelle Fleischman hit 5-of-5 with 2 kills and served 9-of-9 with 2 aces.

"Today, they were serving consistently and serving aggressively," Crow said. "For the most part I didn't tell them to serve certain zones. Instead I let them relax, get in the flow of the game and serve where they were comfortable. They were really aggressive with their serving, and that let us put some runs together."

The Patriots (15-5, 4-0 North Suburban Lake Division) held Mundelein (8-13) to just 2 service points and 1 kill in their errorless first game. A service run of 6 points by Fleischman gave Stevenson a big advantage early, and Fritzsche served the final 7 in a row to end a game that took barely 15 minutes to play.

In Game 2, Mundelein took its first lead since the match's opening point and led 5-3 before a tip kill by Fritzsche gave Stevenson a sideout and Salata served the Patriots to a 7-5 lead. The team never trailed again, and pulled ahead late on a series of block kills by Fleishman, who had match highs of 6 solo and 3 assist blocks.

"When she's playing that well and playing well at the net, she makes us a hard team to attack," Crow said. "Margaret also played the net really well tonight, and the two of them did an outstanding job in terms of their reactions and timing their jumps."

Stevenson libero Izzy Shaindlin had a match-high 10 digs, with Burke and Fritzsche adding 6 each. Mundelein had only 4 service points overall, with Mallory Boich delivering the lone ace. Sarah Kelly led the Mustangs with 3 kills.