The Lions are becoming a nuisance for the Friars. For the second straight year, Lyons Township claimed the LaGrange AA Sectional Girls Volleyball Championship and once again Fenwick was its victim.
The Friars fell 25-13, 25-13 last week to LT, missing a shot to advance to the super-sectionals. While the Friars have journeyed to the sectional tourney the last three years, they have only prevailed once against the Lions. Despite the loss, fourth-year Fenwick coach Eileen Asmussen was pleased with her young squads’ showing.
“We have won the regional the past five years and made the sectional the last three years,” she said. “But, LT is a great team and I think we ran out of gas against them. We didn’t have the match we hoped to have and they were well prepared. We had a hard time handling their servers, plus our defense and blocking broke down.”
Usually, Fenwick left-side hitter junior Liz O’Brien averages 10 to 15 kills a match, but against LT she was limited to four. To LT’s credit, it did not give the Friars any chance to get into a rhythm. After snatching the first game quickly, the Friars buckled down in the second game. At 10-10, however, the Lions serving game got hot and before Asmussen and her Friars could react, the score was 20-11. Fenwick’s Clair Liston finished with seven kills, while Colleen Quaid had 12 assists. Defensively, Anna Taconi and Emily had five digs apiece.
“We just had a real streaky tournament,” Asmussen said. “The last few matches have been like that. We were on the positive end of that in the regional, but it came back to get us against LT. We struggled to get the ball to our setter and we struggled in the back court. It just seemed like everything we did was a bit off.”
Still, the Friars enjoyed a 25-10 overall record this season and went 5-4 in the highly competitive East Suburban Catholic Conference?#34;not bad for an underclassman dominated squad, according to Asmussen.
“We had a good year and we have beaten some really nice teams,” she said. “I am very proud of what they have done this year. This year our setter is a sophomore Colleen Quaid and our left-side hitter is sophomore Clare Liston. Junior Emily Slavik played libero for us this year. As for next year, I look for sophomore Katie Racanalli as our right-side hitter, junior Melissa Steen and junior Laurel Avors to be impact players.”
Still, there will be some gaps for Asmussen, especially in the middle. The Friars will lose seniors Kristen Hetland and Katie Hartmann, plus defensive specialist Taconi and right-side hitter and Captain Maura Liston.
“Both Hetland and Hartmann had their work cut out for them this year because this was their first full season playing at the varsity level,” Asmussen said. “But they both worked really hard and turned it around. Maura and Anna will also be very difficult to replace. Anna was always the one stabilizing factor on the floor because she was always up and happy and motivated. Maura was a three-year varsity player and she was a very good leader for us this year.
“It has been a great group and this graduating class was the first year class I coached all four years, so this year was very special for me. I really will miss our seniors, but I also am really looking forward to next year.”