Briner Serves Huskies Past Fenwick

It may be hard to believe, but Oak Park-River Forest High School's Jillian Briner can have trouble serving a volleyball.

"To tell you the truth, a lot of times I'm a horrible tosser to myself," she said.

But the only trouble with Briner's serve Thursday night was the kind she dished out to her school's crosstown rival.

The senior uncorked five-straight aces in the second game to help the host Huskies turn the tide and beat Fenwick 14-25, 25-18, 25-14.

"Volleyball's such a game of momentum and it changes just like that," Huskies coach Don August said.

Fenwick (1-3) controlled the first game and appeared ready to register a sweep, building an 11-4 lead in Game 2.

But then Jamie Sherr landed a tip for the Huskies (7-3). At the time, it appeared harmless, but it turned out to be the start of a 20-5 run for the home team.

Half of those points came on aces. Rachel Smylie triggered the serving spree with back-to-back aces that pulled her team within one, 12-11.

"Rachel Smylie came in and gave us a nice lift, a really nice lift," August said. "She hasn't had a lot of opportunity to play, but we needed a spark and she came in and gave us a good spark with both her serves and her setting. And then Jillian really fired us up with her serving."

Thanks in part to a pair of aces, Audrey Greffen served the Huskies to their first lead of the night at 18-15 in the second game.

Briner recorded two kills in three points before stepping to the serving line. The 5-foot-10 lefty reeled off five aces with authority to push her team ahead of the Friars 24-16.

"They started to move back because I serve deeper so I served short, trying to move them around," Briner said.

The strategy worked, much to the dismay of Fenwick coach Kelly Colangelo.

"They were tough," Colangelo said of Briner's serves. "She's a good athlete. She's a good player, for sure.

"[But] you don't need to do anything on that serve. You need to hold your arms out and let it bounce off of you. That's the top-spin jump serve. As a coach that's what you tell your team. We were reading poorly, swinging our arms, doing anything but…"

The Huskies scored the first three points of Game 3 and never trailed in it. They took command with an 8-2 run that gave them a 19-11 lead after Greffen landed an ace.

A few minutes later, they earned the victory on Maggie Quinn's tip.

Briner finished with team-highs of eight kills and nine assists to go with her five aces. The Huskies totaled 16 aces, with Greffen and Smylie contributing three apiece. Quinn added five kills.

"We never have this many fans," Briner said. "It's so fun to beat them, especially in our house."

"We started pretty slow," August said. "I was surprised as anybody. I could guess at a reason. Sometimes we get a big crowd and we're focused more on who's in the stands than on the court. Once we get out of that and focus on the game then we start playing."

Fenwick received seven kills and two blocks from Kelly Brennan. Courtney Ryan added six kills and Sarah Hunt notched five for the Friars, who played nearly flawlessly in the opening game before watching the Huskies seize control.

"I really don't have many words," Colangelo said. "We had a poor match."