South Elgin sweeps past Elgin
South Elgin's girls volleyball team has worked on serving all season long.
With Elgin challenging in Game 2 of Wednesday's Class 4A Glenbard West regional play-in match against the Storm, the hard work proved invaluable.
Tied 18-all after No. 13-seeded South Elgin dominated the opening game 25-12, the Storm notched a pair of aces and allowed the 19th-seeded Maroons just 1 more point, claiming a 25-12, 25-19 victory.
South Elgin (15-16) now gets a date with St. Charles East (24-11), the No. 3 seed at 10 a.m. Saturday at the regional semifinals in Glen Ellyn. South Elgin played St. Charles East tough in the regular-season meeting, losing a 25-18, 25-19 match.
"My team really pulls together when we get momentum going," said Storm junior outside hitter Christie Cortese, who recorded 2 aces in the final 7 points. "Our energy was up. We pulled it back together."
South Elgin also got 2 aces from Alexa Kruel, Hayley Bradley and Sarah Havemann. Havemann's first ace gave the Storm the first tie since 1-1 of Game 2.
"That we have won more games this year," said South Elgin coach Joni Melahn, who was a former assistant coach at St. Charles East. "Our serving has improved so much. We want to serve at the team's weaker passers."
Not leading after an early 1-0 lead in Game 1, Elgin (6-21) led Game 2 until South Elgin tied the game at 14. Prior to that, Elgin had held the Storm off from tying the game 7 times.
After the 14th point, the Storm did not trail. South Elgin led until the teams tied at 18, before an Elgin hitting error and Cortese ace put the Storm up 20-18. The pattern repeated itself, with a Maroon hitting error and Cortese ace extending the Storm lead to 21-18.
Elgin scored only after South Elgin had it at match point.
"We're a better team than what you saw," Elgin coach Keith Foster said. "We didn't come ready to play."
Elgin got off to a hot start in Game 2 thanks in large part of the future of the Maroons' volleyball program. Freshman Kendall Martin, who finished with a match-high 8 kills, had 2 kills and an ace in Elgin's first 5 points. Graduating only one senior, Martin is confident of how Elgin will build off of her first season.
"We're going to build off of the mistakes we made today," she said. "We want to try to come out as a stronger team (next year)."
-- Matt Stacionis
Barrington d. Buffalo Grove:ŒIn order to qualify for Saturday's Class 4A regionals, No. 13-seeded Barrington and No. 20 Buffalo Grove were required to compete in a "play-in" match.
The host Fillies won 25-6, 25-14 and now hope to "play on" for a long time in the state tourney.
The Fillies (16-20) resume action at the Lake Zurich regional Saturday against the host Bears (29-6) in the 3 p.m. semifinal.
Fremd (25-10) and Prospect (16-19) meet at 4 p.m. in the second semifinal and the championship follows at 5:30 p.m.
"Coach kept telling us, 'Come October, come October, we had to be ready to play,' " said Fillies senior all-conference defensive specialist Katie Goldrath. "We struggled early this season, we were young and a lot of us hadn't played together. But we're starting to develop moments of brilliance and hopefully we can sustain it the rest of the way."
-- John Leusch
Glenbard North d. Proviso West:ŒThe No. 16 seed Panthers swept 17th-seeded Proviso West 25-12, 25-11 in the Class 4A Bartlett regional quarterfinals. Jen Petrosky led the way with 7 kills, Nicolette Rini totaled 5 kills and 2 blocks and Sarah Campos collected 16 assists.
Glenbard North (9-27) advances to play top-seeded Wheaton Warrenville South at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Hinsdale Central d. West Aurora:ŒAmanda Freyn's 13 kills powered the 14th-seeded Red Devils over No. 19 seed West Aurora 25-13, 20-25, 25-7 in the Class 4A Hinsdale South regional quarterfinals. Mary Crofton added 9 kills and Lindsay Homme chipped in 8.
Hinsdale Central (18-16) will meet third-seeded Downers Grove South at 4 p.m. Saturday.