Girls volleyball: Buffalo Grove a win away from MSL title match
One more win in the Mid-Suburban East and Buffalo Grove's girls volleyball team will accomplish a championship it hasn't had in more than four decades.
With a 25-4, 25-16 win at Wheeling on Tuesday night, the Bison improved to 8-1 in the East, tied for first with Hersey.
BG (18-9) needs a win at Rolling Meadows on Thursday to make its first appearance in the MSL championship match since 1976 when the Bison lost to Forest View.
"It's literally crazy," said Bison outside hitter Lauren Horvath, who put down a match-high 9 kills. "I've always dreamed of winning a MSL title because my brothers actually won twice at BG with our boys volleyball team. It would just seem so surreal."
Senior Claire Ferriss wheeled in the Wildcats with 12 straight service points that put the Bison ahead 21-3 in Set 1.
Ellie Welter ended the run with a kill before Nina Masciopinto served out the set, getting a kill from Horvath for the 25th point.
"We've been focusing on one point at a time, one game at a time," said Bison coach Matt Priban. "Now we are going to focus on Rolling Meadows."
"It was good warm-up for Thursday where hopefully the same thing goes down." said Ferriss (2 aces), who also had 6 kills along with teammate Shannon Coglianese.
BG has defeated Meadows twice already.
"The third time is going to be even tougher," Priban added. "We've got to come out aggressive on Thursday."
The Wildcats (12-16, 3-6) kept things closer in Set 2.
However, back-to-back kills by Horvath made it 21-14. Moments later Megan Mitsunaga's 2 service points ended the match.
Emily LaCaesye put down 5 kills from 5-of-5 attacking for the hosts.
"You don't see that too often," said Wheeling coach Jason Kopkowski. "She's a junior and I know she'll be seeing more time on the court moving forward."
The Wildcats received 10 assists from junior setter Grace Zambrano (1 kill) and 12 digs from Johana Veloso.
"I told coach Priban before the match that in my 16 years coaching in the MSL this is the best BG team I've seen," Kopkowski added. "And kudos to them because I know they've put in a ton of work. They run an aggressive offense, they play aggressive defense and their serve receive is pretty spot on. They're a tough team to beat when they're paying well."
Gianna LoVerde also served an ace for BG while senior setter Maggie Streckert handed out 22 assists. Leading the back row in digs were Masciopinto (3), Kristen Belias (2) and Coglianese (2).
"I think we had only one hitting error the entire match," Priban said. "We were really consistent offensively and defensively we did a nice job picking up the ball, and picking up tips. They were struggling to get kills on us. So kudos to our back row getting the job done."