Saxons dream comes true, takes MSL title
Schaumburg played a dream match in the 36th annual Mid-Suburban League girls volleyball championship Wednesday night.
It was fitting, because four-year Saxons floor leader Drewann Pancratz had been imagining the moment from day one.
"I've been dreaming about winning this match since my freshman year," said Pancratz, the Mid-Suburban West player of the year. "Finally, we got it."
The host Saxons (26-7) got it in convincing fashion with a 25-19, 25-12 victory over East champion Hersey (21-9).
"Schaumburg played great," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "From the start, their crowd was fantastic. And Drewann, what a match"
Pancratz (team-high 9 digs and 2 aces, 7 kills), collecting a stunning array of drops, setting assists (16) and blocks (2), helped pave the way.
Gabrielle Blackwell (9 kills), Alexandria Jackson (4 kills, 4 blocks), Heather Bolger (3 kills) and Monica Sanchez (2) were all forces at the net for the MSL West champs.
"Drewann had a great match," Lill said. "She dished off to her hitters and found holes in our defense. She is just a smart player.
The Saxons got off to smart start, using tip by Bolger, block by Jackson and 2 kills and a block by Blackwell to ignite a 6-1 advantage.
Four straight service points by junior setter Shelly Mueller (2 aces, 14 assists) including an ace, brought the Huskies to a 6-6 tie.
Schaumburg scored 5 of the next 6 points before Hersey rallied to within 15-13 on a kill by MSL East Player of the Year Lauren Dembkowski (8 kills).
But that's as close as the Huskies would get in Game 1.
Jackson's tool off Pancratz's set sparked a 4-0 run and Saxons eventually put away the game on Pancratz's ace.
"Our tournament the past weekend (2-3 at the talent-laden Glenbard East Invite) told us that we still had things to work on, so we just came out and basically played Schaumburg volleyball," Jackson said. "We might have a few little errors, but for the most part we kept them to a minimum."
Back-to-back kills by Jackson gave the hosts a quick 2-0 lead in Game 2 and the Saxons gradually pulled away.
An ace by Sanchez and beautiful drop by Pancratz made it 13-7 and the Saxons needed only 3 more servers to win the match.
"Even though we had beaten Hersey before (three games at the Hersey Invite last month), we knew this wouldn't be easy," Blackwell said. "So we played our hearts out and competed with a lot of enthusiasm.
"Drewann definitely played well. Everyone played well. We did not make a lot of unforced errors. Everything was on target."
Defensively, Gryte Satas had a block for the Saxons while Aleks Kosta collected 8 digs and Sam Kelly 2.
"They were looking to put a lot of pressure on us with their serve but everyone stepped up," said Saxons coach Jeanette Pancratz. "And we had some strong net play to keep their hitters off balance.
"Hersey is a strong program and right up there with the teams we played at Glenbard East. We haven't been in this match for 13 years but they've been plugging away in it for several years. We're proud to come out on top against such a strong program."
Lill said serve receive hurt her team.
"And we were hitting right into the strength of their block," added Lill, who also received 4 kills from her daughter Katie and 2 from Ann Carroll. "The nucleus of our team is young. These kids are hungry and we'll go back to practice and work on things because we did not execute."