Schools
Fenwick Girls Volleyball Falls Short
Friars give a good effort in a 25-11, 25-12 loss to Lyons Township in the Class 4A regional finals.
School intercom announcements about Report Card Night interrupted the national anthem twice before the Fenwick girls volleyball team’s Class 4A Proviso West regional final match Thursday night.
The Friars deserved an “A” grade for their effort that followed, but ultimately No. 1 seed and defending state championship Lyons Township proved too much, beating them 25-11, 25-12 in Hillside.
Even Fenwick coach Kelly Colangelo, who can be brutally honest, applauded her eighth-seeded players afterward.
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“There was heart, there was energy, there was fight,” she said. “They went into this with positive thoughts. I don’t think anyone was defeated before we started.”
Fenwick (6-16) was mentally ready from the start. The first rally was long and the Friars won it when sophomore Sam Pethkoukis delivered a kill of a quick set in the middle by junior Maggie Reilly.
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Indicative, though, of the way the match unfolded, Lyons (28-8) answered immediately with a big kill from the left side by Alexis Vilunas, who wound up with a match-high 10 kills. Next, a Fenwick bumping save traveled out-of-bounds and then Laura Williams put the Lions ahead 3-1 with one of her four aces.
The Friars trailed 6-5 before Lyons scored nine of the next 12 points to build a 15-8 advantage. The Lions later used a five-point run to go up 23-10 before taking the opener on a pair of errors.
Game 2 saw Fenwick enjoying a handful of early one-point leads. The last one came at 7-6 after Lyons served into the next. But the tall Lions roared back with a 10-1 run to claim a 16-8 advantage.
Fenwick never made a run after that. The Friars had trouble with Lyons’ height and serving.
“I’m kind of crushed,” Reilly said. “It hurts to lose like that. Honestly, we fought a lot, but their serving was really good. “
Junior Olivia Soja managed to land a team-high six kills for Fenwick despite being at a physical disadvantage against the Lions with her modest 5-foot-8 height.
“I don’t think the score is really reflective of how we played,” Soja said. “They had some big runs that got us down, but otherwise I think we played really hard and fought to the end.”
Colangelo called this a rebuilding year. She expects the Friars to be improved next season.
“The future is bright,” Colangelo said.
“There’s a lot of good players on the sophomore team who are coming up so I think it’s very promising,” Reilly said.
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