Arlington Hts. Lady Saints top Illinois team
The Lady Saints of St. Peter Arlington Heights Lutheran School won the state of Illinois Lutheran Sports Association Basketball Tournament Sunday, March 6.
During the three-day tournament, the Saints swept a statewide elite field of the top 16 Illinois eighth-grade Lutheran schools, some local and some from far, including Centralia, Edwardsville and Collinsville.
In the finals, hosted by St. Peter, the Saints rocked a boisterous capacity filled arena. They beat an undefeated team from St. John Lombard Lutheran School 28-14.
Although the Saints were undermanned with the loss of their top point guard, the team specialized in a tenacious man-to-man defense, which led to a balanced offense led by MVP Katelyn Sommers and center Rachel Erdmann.
Also named to all-tournament teams were guard Kristen Jackson, point guard Rachel Fredrick and guard Chelsea Gnan. The rest of the team is made up of guard Kelly Jordan, forward Ally Pagones, guard Katrina Corral and seventh-graders Megan Kuerschner, Paige Pawlis and Bethany Hoehne.
The Saints eighth-grade girls graduating class consists of 13. Eight play basketball. What this team lacks in size or size of roster, the tough group plays with heart and great team speed. They are led by the coaching staff of Peter Gnan, Steve Erdmann and Kristen Sommers.
It has been a magical season for the 35-2 Saints.
Although public schools have a large class size of hundreds of girls to field a team, the Saints dominated play as co-champions (11-1) in the public school Mid Suburban Middle Athletic Conference of St. Peter, Holmes, Lincoln, MacArthur, London, River Trails and Cooper.
This same group of girls are 10-0 and champions of this public conference current volleyball season.
St. Peter was the champion of their own Northwest Suburban Lutheran Conference and took second place at the Grace Classic in Menomonee Falls, Wis.
They were winners of four large prestigious tournaments, including the Immanuel Palatine Bobcat Tipoff, St. Peter Arlington Heights Saints Shootout, Zion Marengo PTL Tournament and, finally, the LSA State Championship tournament.
The Saints’ storybook basketball season will continue with a trip to the Lutheran Basketball Association of America 64th annual National Tournament of Champions hosted by Valparaiso University, Ind., March 24-27.
There, the Saints will compete with the top 32 Lutheran eighth-grade girls teams from across the nation.
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