Girls volleyball notes: Fremd leaning on Drenth’s leadership

Leadership is so important when you are the quarterback for a high school girls volleyball team.

Fremd girls coach Pete Gavin scored a touchdown when he got setter Madison Drenth in the program four years ago.

The daughter of former Hoffman Estates girls volleyball coach Angela Drenth, Madison truly plays her leadership role to the fullest.

Last season, she helped guide the Vikings (15-9, 5-2 Mid-Suburban East at start of the week) to fourth place in the Class 4A tourney but key players from that squad graduated.

“With the amount of seniors and their leadership that we graduated, I know there has been a tremendous amount put on Madison this season and this has been a huge step for her,” Gavin said. “But I try to remind her it's nothing new. We actually talked to her about how she's been in our main gym either on junior varsity or varsity since she has been a freshman and she has always been awesome to her teammates.”

While she does not have plans to play the sport in college, Drenth — who plans to major in marketing — is helping set up Harper Neill, a Loyola recruit.

If not for coach Gavin's decision to convert Neill from a libero to an outside hitter, Neill would be the one passing to Drenth.

Instead Neill has been taking her cues from Drenth, who knows exactly how to make the hitter comfortable on the court.

Neill, whose parents are coaches for the Sky High Volleyball club, still prefers playing libero.

“In club volleyball, I'm going up against hard hitters on the open level,” she said. “I like digging harder hitters and competing with the best.

“Now in high school, since I'm an upperclassman, and people kind of rely on me, I feel I have to try to help the team with as many kills as I can. I miss playing libero sometimes but it's also very fun just getting up and ripping the ball.”

She's had that chance thanks to Gavin.

“I even joked with her dad (Jimmy, former Woodstock girls head coach and assistant at St. Viator) last year when she led us in the state tournament in kills,” Gavin said. “When we were down there, I said to him 'you've just been playing her at the wrong position her whole life. She's really an outside.’”

Palatine: Alaina Ratay had quite a Senior Night on Sept. 29.

The four-year Palatine setter for coach Dan Gavin became the program's first player to record 2,000 assists in the rally-score era during a two-set loss to Hersey.

Coming into this season, Ratay already had the school rally-score era record for assists with 1,765 and was coming off a junior season where she registered 723 assists, 36 aces, 213 digs and 27 blocks.

Prospect: The Knights are still growing together as a younger team and building connections on the court. They took Barrington to three sets, neck and neck most of the match. “Although we lost, the team has been looking better and better,” coach Alaina Mowinski said. The match was also Prospect's annual UKnight for a Cure Breast Cancer Awareness match, a partnership with Lemons of Love to raise money for individuals affected by cancer.

Rolling Meadows: The Mustangs (20-5) are leaders in the MSL East with a 7-0 record and recently finished second at the Glenbrook North Invite, losing to the host Spartans (16-6) in the final.

Senior setter Lainey Griffiths broke the program record for career assists at the tourney.

Barrington: The MSL West-leading Fillies finished 12th out of 24 teams at the ASICS Challenge while competing against some of the top teams in the state and country.

In conference play, heading into the week the Fillies (17-7) were 7-0 in the West with just three matches remaining (Palatine, Hersey and Fremd).

Hoffman Estates: The Hawks (12-12, 3-4 MSL West) often have three sophomores and two juniors on the floor.

“It is promising for our future,” said Hawks coach Pat Moran. “The girls are doing a nice job working on improving and we are excited for the final month of the season together.”

Lilah Scott had 9 kills in a recent win over Schaumburg while sophomore libero Hanna Buhayova collected a career-high 12 digs in the match.

Hersey: The Huskies (5-2 MSL East) are looking forward to ending conference play on a high note. Allie Waltz joined the varsity team as a setter when senior Danielle Jensen went down with an injury the last two matches, a win over Palatine and a loss to Fremd.

In those matches, freshman Karina Boduch (eight kills) and seniors Cassidy O'Brien (eight), Mahi Vullakula (six) and Lily Mattix (five) led the attack.

Mattix led with six blocks followed by Boduch (five). Assist leaders were sophomore Avery Bashford (68), Waltz (22) and Jensen (11). Miami of Ohio commit Freya McBride led with 14 digs.

Wheeling: Entering this week, the Wildcats (16-7, 5-2) were two matches behind MSL West leader Rolling Meadows with three to play. The Wildcats need four wins for a second straight 20-win season under coach Jason Kopkowski.