Girls volleyball: Fremd topples Hersey to claim MSL crown

Perhaps the best thing that happened to Fremd's girls volleyball team was a loss to Deerfield last Saturday.

The Vikings saw the end of a 25-match winning streak.

Four days later, they started a new one with one of the biggest wins in program history.

Fremd earned its second Mid-Suburban League championship with a 25-17, 25-20 triumph in Palatine over 11-time conference champion Hersey.

It comes on the heels of a win over Woodstock for third place in Saturday's Grayslake North tourney, meaning the Vikes now have won two in a row and own a 27-3 record overall.

"That (Saturday's loss) was something that really needed to happen," said MSL West Player of the Year Rylen Reid. "That loss really put things in perspective and showed us what we needed to work on."

Reid, a sophomore outside hitter, showed why she was selected the West POTY with a terrific effort, putting down a match-high 10 kills off the excellent sets from her classmate Rian Baker.

Reid's sister Breslen, a senior, followed with 7 kills and sophomore Claudia Wala added two.

"I thought Rylen did a fantastic job tonight," said Fremd coach Curt Piney. "She had the spotlight on her a little bit (winning POTY award) and she's only a sophomore. All things said, I thought she did an exceptional job."

A kill by MSL East Player of the Year Kati Kaburov and an ace by junior libero Maddie Mullin gave Hersey a 7-2 lead in set 1 but Fremd took the lead for good at 11-10 on an ace by junior Deme Yianas and kill by Wala.

Hersey (24-6) got to within 16-15 but Rylen Reid served 3 straight points, including an ace to make it 20-15.

Yianas was back at the service line for the set's final 3 points, including an ace.

Izzy Segoviano led the back row with 9 digs while Baker collected 19 assists. Cassie Seaver, Allie Belmonte and Wala each had a block.

"Izzy did a real nice job passing late in the game," Pinley said. "I thought we got a few block kills and a few positive touches which we've been working on in practice.

"And the other thing we did was terminate out of serve receive. Any time you can do that, you can control the tempo and I thought we did a pretty good job controlling the tempo."

Set 2 was tied at 6 and 7 before the Vikes went ahead to stay.

Breslin's Reid kill made it 9-7 and the lead was extended to 15-9 when Breslin served an ace.

The closest Hersey would get was 22-19 on a block from Janine Boyan.

Four points later it was the West player of the year putting down her 10th kill for the match-winner.

"I think that award should have been Breslin's," Rylen said. "She deserved it. She's a senior. She's my role model. She's everything I'd love to be in a player and person. It should have been hers."

Not according to Breslin.

"My sister always plays better," she said with a big smile when asked who had the better match. "I love living in her shadow."

And now there are two sisters living in the same house as MSL champs, something that had happened only once before at Fremd (2016).

"I thought we played real well after the first 6 or 7 points," said Pinley, a winner of 494 girls matches. "We eventually got that 3 or 4-point lead in Set 1 and didn't relinquish it and that's something we practice."

"We've really been doing it kind of as a team all season. Obviously, Rylen had an important game but we did a really great job of supporting her."

Kaburov led Hersey (25-5) with 9 kills while Juliette van den Herik and Boyan each had three. Kaiya Eshoo handed out 15 assists while Mullin had 11 digs before having to leave the match late in the second set.

"My biggest worry is Maddie's health," Hersey coach Nancy Lill said. "She collided with another girl in the second set. Hopefully it's not a concussion."

Lill said the Huskies cost themselves by not performing the basics.

"You can't miss as many serve as we did," she said. "Your passing has to be better. This was just a breakdown of the basic essentials of the game.

"We're way better than this, We know it. Fremd executed and we made mistakes. Give them credit. They came ready to play. We just weren't quite there today.

"The good news is we could see them two more times."

The Huskies and Vikings are in the Lake Park Invite this weekend and the same Class 4A sectional.

"You play another team of their caliber and you don't know how it will go," Pinley said. "I'm just going to enjoy tonight's match and take it for what it was."