Round-up: Conant gets team effort
Conant girls volleyball coach Peggy Scholten said her Cougars "finally came up with an incredible team effort" when they defeated visiting Barrington 20-25, 25-19, 25-16 Thursday in the Mid-Suburban West.
The Cougars (10-10, 4-3) moved into a three-way tie for second with Barrington (5-15, 4-3) and Fremd (12-8, 4-3). The trio trails Schaumburg (7-0).
Conant's West Virginia-bound Michelle Kopecky celebrated Senior Night with 16 kills, 5 block kills and 18-of-21 serve receiving, while junior Katherine Hozian added 7 kills and 4 blocks.
"Michelle's offensive game is phenomenal," Scholten said "And her defensive game is really picking up. Katherine ran our middle and did a great job all-around."
Tricia Kutramanes handed out 28 assists, 8 going to junior Mandy Larsen, who also had 13 digs and 8-of-9 serve receiving.
Senior Meghan Malone also sparked the defense with 9 digs and 8-of-8 serve receiving. Classmate Monica Danek added 8 digs.
"We had solid performances everywhere," Scholten said. "As we continue to get different people healthy and coming off a disappointing loss on Tuesday, this was an outstanding team effort."
Schaumburg d. Hoffman: Host Schaumburg (16-3, 7-0) clinched a tie for first in the MSL West with a 28-26, 25-15 victory as Gabrielle Blackwell (9 kills), Drewann Pancratz (7) and Heather Bolger (5) led the attack. Pancratz contributed 18 assists in the win over Hoffman (5-15, 0-7).
Fremd d. Palatine: Danielle Warner (9 kills), Stephanie Alesi (4) and Kaitlyn Pascus (3) led the attack for host Fremd (12-8, 4-3) in a 25-16, 25-19 victory.
Natalie Bruck (11 assists) and Michelle Gonnella (8) ran the Vikings' offense.
Palatine (5-15, 2-5) was led by senior Kaitlyn Hofeldt's 6 kills to go with 4 from sophomore Jenny Solberg.
Girls swimming
Divers are strange creatures.
Those denizens of the deep are on practically every high school swimming team, yet they never get to swim. They practice early in the morning or afternoon -- sometimes both -- only they're at one end of the pool with their coach while the rest of their teammates are at the other end with their coach.
Yet divers are some of the most talented and fearless athletes in any sport.
At Thursday's Mid-Suburban League East Division meet between Hersey and host Buffalo Grove, the Huskies' Heidi Johnson set the pool record for a 6-dive meet with 246.90 points.
Five days earlier, at the Buffalo Grove Invitational, Johnson set the pool record for 11 dives with 377.90 points.
"It's just a lot of practice, a lot of very hard practice," Johnson said after her team went up 3-0 in the East with a 119-67 win. "I especially like diving against Buffalo Grove's Christine Douthwaite. She's a good competitor. She's got a lot of talent."
Johnson didn't join the team until last year, when she was a junior.
"I dove over the summer the last two years," she said. "It's just nice to see all that hard work pay off."
Douthwaite is also one of the best divers in the MSL and finished second (216.70) behind Johnson (246.90).
"She has very good form," said BG diving coach Chris Stevens. "She spent time doing gymnastics and ballet. She started diving freshman year. Her sister dove (for Maine West) for one year and I think that made (Christine) think about it.
"When I saw her at summer camp before freshman year, I suggested she do diving. Her form is her best quality. Other coaches compliment her all the time on it."
Neither head coach was surprised by the results.
"The score is misleading," said Hersey coach Rob Lindgren. "There were a lot of close races. (Bison coach Tom) Mroz does a great job. You know Buffalo Grove is going to come hard at you."
"He has good swimmers, talent and depth," Mroz said. "I have some good talent, just not enough of it."
-- Kathy Rudolph
Softball
Freeman to coach Hersey: Molly Freeman, a two-time all-area softball player for Fremd High School, has been named the varsity softball coach at Hersey.
Freeman, who graduated from Fremd in 1997 and played on coach Rob Harris' 1997 Elite Eight team, was a two-time all-conference outfielder for the University of Illinois-Chicago.
She served as an assistant coach at the University of Louisiana-Monroe and the University of Illinois.
Freeman is student teaching at Fremd.
Soccer
Leyden 2, Addison Trail 1: Feisty Leyden (5-6-5) came back for the West Suburban Gold win with 2 second-half goals. Arnaldo Reyes tied it off Eddie Adame's assist and Nico Gonzalez won it with a Rafal Zalewski assist.
Omak Toriz had 5 saves for the Eagles.
Palatine 2, BG 1: Thanks to goals from Josh Cark (assist Omar Herrera) and Leys Vargas (assist Kyle O'Meara) and a solid effort from goalie Ben Calvopina (7 saves) the visiting Pirates where able to come away with a MSL crossover win. Ryan Franz had a second-half goal for Buffalo Grove and goalie Mike McEvoy had 9 saves.