Girls volleyball: Palatine wins battle of MSL teams for 3rd at Scholten

The third-place match at the annual Peggy Scholten Girls Volleyball Classic on Saturday had a Mid-Suburban League flavor to it.

The West Division's Palatine defeated the East's Rolling Meadows 25-17, 25-19 to give the Pirates their second third-place finish in three years.

Pirates junior Haley Holz has been a part of both top-four finishes in addition to last year's sixth-place effort.

"I thought we could have played a little better this weekend," said the 6-foot-2 middle hitter. "We were a little inconsistent in some things. But overall, we continued to grow as a team."

Pirates coach Dan Gavin likes the growth he is seeing from Holz.

"Haley had a real nice tourney," Gavin said. "It's nice to see her growing into the role of being our No. 1 option."

Senior setter Allison Aldag is responsible for getting the ball to Holz and the rest of the Pirates attackers.

"She is a doing a great job in her first varsity season and learning how to be a true setter for our offense," Gavin said. "She is realizing the difference of simply putting the ball up to her hitters and running the offense."

Aldag's classmates Katie Lindert and Amanda Delio helped spark the back row in the Pirates' run to third place.

"Both are so scrappy, and compete so hard to keep the ball off the floor," Gavin said. "And they are team-first players."

Meadows' fourth-place finish included a 25-13, 25-22 win over Maine South, the same team the Mustangs lost to in their season opener (in two sets).

Coach Joe DiSilvio's team went 2-3 in tourney, and was led on attack Eleanor Errico (29 kills), Elise Kowalski (26), Natalie Anderson (25) and Leticia Avellaneda (17).

Mallory King set the offense, going 243-of-261 with 84 assists while Errico collected a team-high 11 blocks in the five matches. Macie Robinson's 54 digs led the back row.

Co-host Fremd took sixth place as the Vikings started the tourney on Friday night by stunning perennial power St. Francis with a 25-9 win in the first set.

The Spartans (who lost to St. Charles East for the title) came back to win the next two sets 25-23 and 17-16, surviving two match points by Fremd in each one.

"I think they were really excited by that," said Fremd coach Curt Pinley. "And we got really close two nights earlier (a 27-25, 26-24 loss to Naperville Central in season opener). So that built a lot of confidence. We were so close against both of those teams. We just couldn't convert on match points in the last two sets against Wheaton St. Francis."

Senior Jessica Rizzo converted 30 kills in the tourney for Fremd (3-3 overall) followed by Heidi Sayre (23), Peyton Hooker (19) and Jessica Mazur (13).

"Rizzo did a real nice job on the outside," Pinley said. "We struggled a little bit to get the ball to Jess (Mazur) inside but Rizzo had a real nice tourney."

Rizzo also had 5 aces and while Mazur collected 8 blocks. Setter Sarah Straup handed out 85 assists. Maddie Aichinger had 18 digs and Straup 9.

"Quite honestly, I thought as a team we did really nice job," Pinley said. "I don't know if there was any one individual who did a great job, but we are so young right now. I thought we did a really good job of coming together as a team. It was a good weekend for us and we're looking forward to continuing forward the rest of the season."

Schaumburg took 11th place in the 16-team event. Conant was 14th followed by Elk Grove (15th) and Hoffman Estates (16th).

The Cougars defeated Hoffman Estates 2514, 25-21 on Saturday and lost to Lake Zurich in two sets (25-14, 27-26). Ania Baker and Kristina Loznjakovic each had 7 kills against Lake Zurich. Fiona Fennelly handed out 15 assists while Joanne Cho and Amanda Klingsporn collected 11 digs apiece.

Hoffman's attack was led by sophomore Patricia Wadas (17 kills), senior Jessica Jurewicz (8), senior Elise Psonak (6) and senior Janiah Fowler (6). Senior Kathleen Gueco was 82-of-82 setting with 23 assists while sophomore Ashley Poland led the defense it 44 digs and senior Molly Salerno added 15.

New Trier tourney: Hersey (5-2) lost to host New Trier in the semifinals of the Summer's End tourney and then fell to Warren in the third place match.

The Huskies defeated Glenbrook North (25-14, 25-20), Niles North (25-12, 25-15) and Maine West (25-16 27-25) in Friday's pool play.

Kati Kaburov (36 kills), Amy Morgan (30), Juliette Van Den Herik (15), Alessia Olhava (13) and Janine Boyan (10) led the attack for Hersey while Emma Strozewski handed out 90 assists. Kaburov also served 14 aces and Molly Twohig added 6 along with a team-high 60 digs.

Van Den Herik and Boyan led Hersey with 10 blocks apiece.

"We gained some great experience for our team this weekend," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "Unfortunately, we struggled with consistency and made too many unforced errors (on Saturday). Overall, it was a good learning experience for our team."

Maine West (6-2) finished sixth overall in Winnetka going 2-1 on Friday (second place in pool play) and 1-1 on Saturday.

Niles West defeated the Warriors 18-25, 25-18, 25-13 in the silver pool championship.

Jessica Riedl (41 kills, 10 blocks), Reilly Olson (44 kills, 39 digs, 10 aces) and Amanda Grzebien (17 kills, 46 digs, 17 kills) led West on attack while Ally Block (49 assists, 23 digs, 8 aces) set the offense.

Sophia Saldana (46 digs, 7 aces) and Christy Kolosvary (63 assists, 24 digs) highlighted the back row defense.

Wheeling went 2-3 to finish in eighth place.

The Wildcats (5-7) were led on attack by Remy Jankowski (18 kills), Nicole Nguyen (17), Nosa Igieon (16), Rugile Jaciunas (13), Erin Welter (9) and Jazmyn Veloso (8) while setter Jessica Janowski handed out 71 assists.

Veloso paced the Cats' defense with 67 digs followed by Janowski (37) and Nguyen (35).

Jacobs tourney: Barrington (5-3) went 2-3 in Algonquin with wins over Grant (25-23, 25-17) and Stevenson (25-16, 17-25, 26-24).

Senior libero Suzana Andrade de Oliveira (35 digs, 5 aces) and Sara Casaletto (12 digs) led the Fillies' back row.

Top attackers were Andi Capel (25 kills, 17 digs), Peyton Tilly (22 kills), Bailey Madrzyk (15 kills), Paige Ramel (10 kills, 8 blocks) and Kate Shechtman (6 kills, 4 blocks).

Felicia Gugilardo (30 assists, 5 aces, 10 digs) and Tara Kozak (35 assists) set the offense.