Girls volleyball: Fremd ears Scholten Invitational crown

With Fremd trailing late in set one in the championship match of Saturday's Peggy Scholten Conant-Fremd girls volleyball invitational, Vikings setter Lydia Vander Ark stepped to the service line.

"I just went back there and said to myself, 'we're going to win this game,' " said Vander Ark. "I had confidence and just served."

And it was at that point, playing on her home court, that Vander Ark gave the Vikings a big boost of adrenaline.

Vander Ark hammered 2 consecutive aces to turn a 22-21 deficit into a 23-22 lead, and Fremd went on to win the first set - and the title, defeating Joliet West 26-24, 25-15 for the crown.

"I did the best I could," added the setter, " but it was my teammates - everyone, including the people on the bench - that hyped us up and got us believing that we could win."

Fremd won all five of its matches in the two-day tourney without dropping a game.

"That we didn't even lose a set really says something," said Vikings coach Curt Pinley. "We had played two matches so far this year but we couldn't quite pull those out, and we had a long conversation on Thursday. We had played really well but things just hadn't gone in our direction.

"We said, 'let's see if we can get things moving in the right direction this weekend', and the kids really stepped up."

St. Francis won the third-place game over St. Charles East, rallying to win set three 25-20, 20-25, 27-25.

The Spartans finished 4-1 at the invite.

"It was definitely very tense (in the game against the Saints)," said St. Francis senior setter Natalie Ingold. "We had to bring out a bunch of energy and just put the ball down. Aggressiveness was kind of our key thing today, and the last few points our hitter (Anna Calcagno) put down really a couple of good, fast balls which really helped us out a lot."

Palatine reached the semifinals of the consolation bracket, where the Pirates defeated Mid-Suburban West rival Conant.

"We worked together really well today and our energy was consistent," said Pirates 6-foot-3 senior opposite Emily Campe. "That helped us in the match against Conant."

The Pirates fell just short in 3 sets against Harvest Christian Academy in the fifth-place title match.

"Overall we did a good job of executing fast today," added Campe, "and just getting things done."

Campe swatted 48 kills for the tourney, Pirates setter Allison Drake handed out 83 assists, while senior middle Sarah Elischer earned 13 block kills.

"It's been a roller-coaster ride (today), which is fine," said Palatine coach Dan Gavin. "You've got to kind of weather the ups and downs, minimize the times that you're in the valleys, and maximize the times that you're on the peaks."

Harvest Christian earned three victories on the day and was led in the game against Palatine by senior Dana Mestey (40 assists), junior outside hitter Maya Jenkins (17 kills), and sophomore libero Abby Devol (12 digs).

"With a team like ours," said Harvest coach Mike Bui, "a small school playing against bigger schools, it's tough but our kids stayed composed. Our two outsides today (Jenkins and Hayley Martin) did a really nice job."

Conant earned a stellar win in its final match of the day, 18-25, 25-20, 25-23 over Glenbard East, to grab seventh place.

"This is a great tournament for us because it shows us where we're at," said Cougars coach Drewann Pancratz, "and what we need to prepare for in conference. We've been working on some things and trying to improve on them, and hopefully the awesome job that the kids did today carries over (into the rest of the season.)"

Natalie Jurgenson (16 kills) Danielle Smith (13) and Yuri Hara (11) led the attack for Conant.

For the champion Vikings, Rylen Reid was strong on attack with 42 kills on 73-of-81 hitting on the day and was 38-of-39 on serve receive, Izzy Segoviano finished with 4 aces on 50-for-53 from the service line, while teammates Claudia Wala and Elaina Rizzo each hit 5 aces.

Segoviano also led the team with 29 digs while Vander Ark had 31 assists on 92-of-94 setting.

"We lost our first two matches (this season) to Naperville Central and Libertyville," said Pinley, "but they're very good teams. They just had a little more experience than we did at that point, but I knew by the end of this weekend we'd have the experience also. It was nice that we were able to put it together today."

Rolling Meadows (1-6) took 11th and Schaumburg (1-4) was 14th.

Meadows was paced by Ashlyn Ryan (42 kills), Patrycja Winnicki (16 kills) and Bianca Madey (10 kills).