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A long week on the road paid off with a championship for the Newark girls volleyball team Saturday night.
A familiar opponent, and result.
The Norsemen beat Serena for the second time in less than three weeks, rallying for a 25-27, 25-15, 25-15 win to claim the program’s sixth consecutive Little Ten Conference tournament championship. It’s Newark’s 12th championship in the last 13 tournaments, 25th overall title in program history.
“It was a good long week, had to drive to LaMoille three times in four days, the girls deserve it. Pretty proud of that,” Newark coach PJ McKinney said. “We had to beat them twice in a couple weeks and they have a good player, [outside hitter] Paige [Sexton]. She’s going to get her kills, a girl like that, we just had to limit that with how we serve to them and try to take her out of any offense we can. She had 12 or 13 kills in the third set, where she normally gets 22-23. She swings hard from anywhere and we had practiced our defense with the back row attack. We tried to limit her as much as we could.”
It was a banner week for Newark as a team, and junior setter Lauren Ulrich. In a semifinal win over Earlville Ulrich surpassed 1,000 career set assists.
“I’ve asked her to play different positions, and she had 750 assists last year and she is just kind of adding on this year,” McKinney said. “Whatever we ask of her she rolls with it and goes with it, and plays at a high level. She deserves all the accomplishments she gets. When you have good players to play with it helps and she’ll be the first person to tell you she’s played with some really good players.”
Newark is 23-4 after Tuesday’s win over IMSA, even more impressive when considering the Norsemen have been without one of their best hitters for a month. Senior right side hitter Grace Thrall chipped a bone in her ankle on Sept. 12 at Aurora Christian. McKinney said Thrall just got out of a boot and is walking with an air cast now, but is uncertain on her return.
Newark went three sets with Earlville the night after Thrall went down, lost a match at Indian Creek two days later, and then dropped three matches that weekend at the Mt. Pulaski Tournament. But the Norsemen have been 8-0 since that Mt. Pulaski Tournament, a streak that started with their first win over Serena.
“We train our girls to be ready when their number is called,” McKinney said. “We don’t have as many hitters as we have DS’s in the back row. Bri Dixon has stepped up. She was playing middle, we had two other middles to run her spot, we moved Bri to the right side and she is very serviceable there.”
Newark has also seen junior Kiara Wesseh become a force on the outside. Wesseh had 10 kills in a three-set win over Rosary, 10 kills in the Little Ten championship match and 14 against IMSA. Ulrich had 17 kills in the win over Serena Saturday.
“Kiara has taken that outside position and rolled with it,” McKinney said. “Last year we had Megan [Williams] in front of her. She was not called up upon to do a whole lot of offense as a sophomore just getting her feet wet. This year she is asked to produce a lot of offense and she’ll be the first to tell you she’s struggled at times. She’s done good not only front row but also back row as a six-rotation player. She’s un unbelievable athlete, one of the better ones we’ve had come through here.”
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Youth served at Oswego
When Julie Zeck looks out on the court these days, the Oswego coach is excited about the prospects about her program in the present.
And even moreso, the future.
The future is now at Oswego, where sophomores Sidney Hamaker, Mia Jurkovic and setter Ava Flanigan are among the youngsters making huge contributions to the 16-13 Panthers.
“A lot of times I look out on the court and I have one senior and the rest are sophomores,” Zeck said. “The future of this group, it’s unbelievable what they’re going to achieve.”
They’ve already carved out their place in Oswego volleyball history. With a 34-32, 25-21 win over Minooka last week, Oswego won the 600th match in program history. Hamaker had 15 kills and Jurkovic 12 in that match. On the season Hamaker is averaging close to 12-13 kills per match, Jurkovic 7-8.
“Not only is Sidney getting them at the net but also out of the back row. She has a back row attack which is very hard to stop,” Zeck said. “Mia is another option out of the back row. She has been pretty strong back there, it’s exciting to see.”
Meanwhile, Flanigan has been running a 5-1 offense since Day 1 this season. When Flanigan was out sick Tuesday night, a three-set loss to Joliet West, freshman Kimberly Reichard stepped in and set varsity.
“I threw a freshman in there at the last minute and she did pretty good,” Zeck said.
Zeck said she did not anticipate playing this many sophomores at the beginning of the season. She contemplated bringing some up, but thought the better of it.
“I let them get some experience and they proved themselves,” Zeck said. “They’ve stepped up in a big way. They’re going to be a strong group going forward.
“Sometimes our youth shows. We haven’t quite got the consistency we need yet, some ups and downs as far as our play and emotion. I keep trying to explain to them that a lot of times sports are won and lost with that emotion. We’ve had some growing pains but we’ll get through it. The sky is the limit for these kids.”
Postseason seeds
Postseason seeds and pairings were released by the IHSA last week. In Class 1A, Newark is a No. 1 sub-sectional seed in the Forreston Sectional and will play at the St. Bede Regional. A regional final rematch with Serena is a possibility is Newark gets by the Streator Woodland-St. Bede Regional. Yorkville Christian is a No. 2 seed and playing at the Aurora Christian Regional.
In Class 2A, Sandwich is a No. 8 seed in the Winnebago Sectional, and will play No. 9 Stillman Valley at the Rock Falls Regional Oct. 24 with the winner facing the host Rockets. In Class 3A Plano is a No. 13 seed in the Joliet Catholic Sectional and faces No. 4 Providence at the Kankakee Regional Oct. 25.
In Class 4A Oswego East is the No. 4 seed in the Plainfield North Sectional, and faces No. 14 Waubonsie Valley at the Neuqua Valley Regional Oct. 25. Oswego is the No. 10 seed and faces No. 5 Plainfield North at the Naperville North Regional on Oct. 25. Yorkville is the No. 11 seed and faces No. 6 Neuqua Valley at Neuqua Valley on Oct. 25. Benet, Metea Valley and Naperville North are the top three seeds at that sectional.