Girls volleyball: Buffalo Grove upends Hersey, moves into MSL East tie

For the first time in coach Matt Priban's seven-year career as Buffalo Grove's girls volleyball coach, the Bison are in a position they've never been.

And they couldn't be enjoying it more.

The Bison moved into a first-place tie with Hersey, the 15-time defending champion of the Mid-Suburban East.

Led by a match-high 12 kills from senior Claire Ferriss and 19 assists from classmate Maggie Streckert, Buffalo Grove led start to finish in Set 1 and for most of the second set en route to a 25-16, 25-16 win over the Huskies on Thursday night.

Senior Kristen Belias served for the match's final 4 points, including an ace to end it and give the Bison (13-8, 5-1) their first conference win over Hersey in Priban's career.

"It was really big because we've never beaten Hersey in my whole career," Belias said. "This was our goal and we did it in two sets so I'm really proud of everyone.

"Our passing was really consistent and our hitting, too. We were picking up dumps which we didn't do the first time we played them."

In that first match, Hersey came away with a 18-25, 25-15, 25-22 triumph.

"This has been our goal to win the division," Belias added. "But we still have work to do with four more matches left."

Hersey (15-5, 5-1) was led by Boston College recruit Kati Kaburov, who put down 9 kills. Nora Zielke added 5.

"Kati played a great match," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "And Nora stepped up when we needed her. But their passing was stronger than ours. It was not a good night for us. I give Buffalo Grove all the credit. They played consistent volleyball. They swing hard, they tooled our block and played a great match. They have a good setter (Streckert). I like her a lot. Even on a bad pass, she gets the hitters the ball."

Streckert also had 7 digs, 1 block and 1 ace.

"This (Hersey) has always been biggest competition," Streckert said. "It's so great to see all of us all come together and get the win. The big key was that were extremely mentally strong. We were hardly making any mistakes and just playing strong."

BG was strong from the start, breaking out on top 6-1 with 3 straight service points from Gianna LoVerde. Lauren Horvath helped keep the Huskies off balance with 5 kills.

"Their sophomore (Coglianese) played a great match, " Lill added. "I thought she hit really well, and we tried to pick on her defensively and she still passed really well. Claire (Ferriss) had a good match as well. They just outplayed us. It happens."

Abby Kim collected 3 blocks for the Bison while Nina Masciopinto had 9 digs.

"It was an awesome team effort," Priban said. "We just played really clean and executed really well. We stuck to our game plan and stayed focused the whole match."