Schaumburg knocks off Bartlett

The Mid-Suburban West girls volleyball champs will play for another championship Saturday.

Schaumburg made it to the title match of the Class 4A York regional with a 25-18, 24-26, 25-23 victory over No. 10 -seeded Bartlett.

The No. 7 Saxons (22-14) will face the host and No. 2 Dukes on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the title.

Senior Emily Young had 13 assists, 9 kills, 8 digs and 4 blocks for the Saxons.

Other top attackers for the Saxons were Rebecca Thompson (9 kills), Kelly Koutnik (8), Sara Travis (7), and Kelly Skorczewski (2) while Natasha Senecal collected 14 digs.

Highland Park regional: No. 5 St. Viator (25-10) used a balanced attack to advance to the championship match of the Class 4A regional on Saturday against No. 4 Stevenson (28-8) at 7 p.m.

Emily Leazer (5 kills), Janelle Stilling (4), Julie Sweeney (4) and Lauren Falotico (1) led the Lions in a 25-18, 25-12 victory over No. 12 Deerfield.

Leazer also had 5 aces, 7 digs and 3 blocks.

Setter Carlyn Clevenger handed out 13 assists while Stilling added 4 blocks.

Martha McAvoy and Rachel Horvath each served 3 aces for the Lions who received 5 digs apiece from Laura Bunda and Kim McAvoy.

Mundelein regional: Victorious on a volleyball court with Wheeling jerseys around him again, John Uhrik tugged on the front of his gold-colored shirt.

Only it wasn't Wheeling gold that he was wearing, but rather Carmel Catholic gold.

“I kind of have a heart halfway in, you know?” he said with a smile and shrug.

Uhrik was happy, all right, but had mixed emotions after he coached Carmel to a grueling, 25-23, 24-26, 25-16 win over Wheeling, his high school alma mater, in a Class 4A regional semifinal at Mundelein on Thursday night.

Uhrik's brother, Ed, coaches boys volleyball and boys soccer at Wheeling and was sitting in attendance.

“I saw him shrug when Wheeling screwed up,” John Uhrik said.

Carmel (25-11) messed up less on this night, earning the Corsairs a rematch with Libertyville, the top seed in the Warren sectional, in the regional final at 1 p.m. Saturday back at Mundelein.

Eighth-seeded Carmel needed maximum effort to outlast No. 9 Wheeling (18-18), which trailed most of the night. The Wildcats overcame a 22-18 deficit to win the middle game.

“It's just tough to always be chasing,” Wheeling coach Jason Kopkowski said. “(Carmel) controlled the match very nicely from start to finish, and when you're playing from behind, you're worried about making mistakes and you play a little more timid. If we could have put the pressure on them, it maybe would have been a little different result especially Game 3.”

Pippen, the daughter of former Bulls great Scottie Pippen, paced the Corsairs with 13 kills, including seven in Game 2. She's drawing interest from several Division I schools and she said she might take visits to Wisconsin and Northwestern.

“She's really good,” said Wheeling's Kellie Kuzmanic, who's also a 6-foot junior middle. “She can really hit those sharp angles. You try to block her, but when she gets those angles, it's kind of hard.”

Kuzmanic led Wheeling with 10 kills on 17-of-20 hitting. Kayla Jordan and Sarah Hennessy added 8 and 6 kills, respectively, for the Wildcats. Stephanie Fuchs dished out 28 assists (60-of-60 setting), while Jordan and Annette Gorzelany each had 10 digs.

“I thought they were extremely, extremely scrappy,” Uhrik, a 2001 Wheeling graduate, said of the Wildcats. “They played a real good match. I couldn't believe how many balls they got that should have been on the ground. It was frustrating.”

After Kuzmanic's serve tipped the top of the net and fell untouched for an ace to end Game 2, Carmel slowly took control in the decisive game.

“It was a good match to end on, even though we lost,” Kuzmanic said. “It was exciting, we played hard and we fought to the end.”

_Joe AguilarConant regional: Kathy Fletcher put down 8 kills with 4 blocks and 2 aces, pacing the No. 1 seed West Chicago (29-7) to a 25-22, 25-16 win in the Class 4A regional over No. 16 Elk Grove.

Elk Grove (19-17) reached the semifinal with a 25-19, 25-16 victory over No. 18 Conant (14-22) in the play-in match.

Glenbard North regional: Laura Luczak had 13 kills and Tori Clifford 21 digs as the No. 5 Glenbard West (26-10) advanced to the Class 4A regional final with a 25-12, 19-25, 25-11 win over No. 12 Hoffman Estates.

The Hawks were led by Jada Stotts (11 kills), Kelsey Pellus (12 assists) and Mel McGinn (8 assists).

Glenbrook North regional: The host Spartans (No. 14 seed) stopped No. 19 Buffalo Grove 15-19, 25-18 as the Bison were led on attack by Bailey North (4 kills), Alanna Zawlocki (3 kills), Alaina Murphy (3) and Sierra Bugno (2) in the Class 4A regional.

Victoria Ito collected 14 digs while Celine Murphy and Katie Okamoto each served an ace for BG (5-31).

North Shore Country Day regional: Christian Liberty Academy (11-16) posted a 25-21 15-25 25-14 victory over the host school and advanced to Saturday's 2 p.m. championship of the Class 1A regional.

The Chargers will face St. Benedict Prep at 2 p.m.

Cary-Grove regional: In his last season as the Barrington girls volleyball coach, Chris Bronke will be taking the Fillies (20-16) to the championship of the Class 4A regional.

His No. 2 seeded Fillies posted a 25-23, 25-6 victory over McHenry and will face national-ranked Cary-Grove on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Cary-Grove (36-0) defeated Grant 25-4, 25-13.

Trinity regional: No. 13 Maine West (7-29) defeated No. 19 Foreman (Chicago) 25-6, 25-8 in the Class 4A regional quarterfinal, then lost in the semifinal to No. 3 Resurrection (25-19, 25-14).

Loyola regional: No. 8 Loyola defeated No. 9 Leyden 25-13, 20-25, 25-17 in the Class 4A regional semifinal.