Girls volleyball: Fremd claims regional crown

Fremd senior Peyton Hooker said the best thing about winning Thursday's Class 4A Glenbrook North girls volleyball regional volleyball championship was being able to share the crown with her teammates.

"This is just incredible," said Hooker after the Vikings triumphed 26-24, 25-16 over the Spartans in Northbrook. "A lot of us were on this team last year and we didn't get a chance to get to play in the regional finals.

"Being here now and winning just means the world to us, and sharing it with all of them is amazing to me."

Fremd (30-7) will take on New Trier in the second semifinal at Loyola Academy Monday night. Hersey faces Loyola in the opener.

Fremd rallied to win the first set after trailing almost the entire game, then just went on a roll in set 2.

"I thought our team did a great job," said Vikings coach Curt Pinley. "Glenbrook North, I tip my cap to them. They fought, they worked hard, and they hit everything with pace. They didn't give us anything, we had to earn every point tonight."

After falling behind early in set 1, Fremd finally grabbed a 19-18 lead on a tip kill from Breslen Reid.

The game then went back and forth until another tip from Reid brought the Vikings to 25-24, then a block kill at the net from middle Jules Tangney put the game in the win column for Fremd.

"I think we just brought up the energy," said Tangney, a senior. "We really just remembered to have fun and that we were playing for each other, not just to win."

Set 2 was tied early on until two consecutive aces from freshman setter Rian Baker - both perfectly placed serves that just skimmed untouched on the end line - gave Fremd the lead and set the tone for the rest of the match.

"We had to keep working hard to reach our goal," said Baker. "It was a lot of fun tonight. We knew we could do this so we just had to keep pushing and keep going."

With Baker on serve, Fremd increased the advantage to 8-2, then opened up a 10-point lead at 18-8.

Tangney closed out the match the same way she did game 1, on a final kill at the net off a set from Lydia Vander Ark.

"Everyone on and off the court on our team had an insane amount of energy," said Hooker. "I think the second game was the best game we've played all season."

Fremd senior libero Maddie Aichinger led a strong Vikings defensive effort with 15 digs and was 13-of-14 on serve receive.

Teammates Heidi Sayre and Tangney led the attack with 5 kills apiece; Baker was 12-for-13 on serve with the 2 aces and posted 9 assists; while Vander Ark added 8 assists.

Kristel Koutchou had an ace for the Vikings, while Claudia Wala pitched in to the victory with 6 block kills.

"That was about as good as we've played all season," said Pinley of the second game. "We limited our errors, we did a nice job of running our offense, but the biggest thing was is that we were keeping the ball off the floor.

"They (Glenbrook North) were tipping, they had adjusted between set one and set two, but we were able to pick up that adjustment and kept playing our game."