Palatine’s Vesna Grbavac may be short a few vowels, but the senior outside hitter certainly isn’t short on power.
Grbavac put away a match-high 13 kills as the ninth-ranked Pirates (36-5) overpowered No. 10 Warren (36-4) en route to a 15-7, 15-11 sweep Saturday night in the Class AA Highland Park supersectional. Palatine advances to Friday’s state quarterfinals in Bloomington-Normal.
The Pirates used their height advantage to dictate much of the match. The 5-foot-10-inch Grbavac traded kills with 6-4 hitting partner Karen Hagberg, who finished with 11 kills.
“Its good to have someone who intimidates the other team,” Palatine coach George Sherman said of Hagberg. “They (the Blue Devils) structured their defense around that.”
Schaumburg: Underdog Hersey (20-18) rallied after dropping the first game to post a 5-15, 15-3, 15-13 victory over Wheaton North (27-13). The victory marks the eighth straight for the Huskies, and the fourth time in the last 10 years they will make the trip to the quarterfinals.
Senior Maureen Trnka had five kills to pace the balanced Huskies’ attack, while Laurie Anderson added six kills.
“This Cinderella thing, I’ve heard some of the girls talk about it,” Hersey coach Nancy Lill said. “I guess that’s fine. Because we’re going to the big dance.”
Morton: No. 5 Mother McAuley (32-8) will makes its ninth straight state quarterfinal appearance after posting a 15-11, 15-5 victory over St. Ignatius (24-16).
McAuley went up 10-1 in the first game behind the serving of Lauen Mikos, who served seven straight points, including two aces. Ignatius then pulled within 13-11, but Linsday Frasor closed out the game with a jump-serve ace for the Mighty Macs, who had already beaten St. Ignatius four times this year.
Robyn Guokas and Nicole Kacor led the way for McAuley with 10 and eight kills, respectively.
“We changed our blocking strategy, and that stopped their middle attack,” Mother McAuley coach Nancy Pedersen said. “They don’t have the height that we do. Robyn is intimidating when she walks into the gym.”
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Public League championship: Tenisha Wilkens powered a match-high 13 kills to lead Simeon to a 15-8, 15-2 victory over Juarez and a trip to the quarterfinals, the first since 1985 for the Wolverines (23-5-1). With Simeon down 7-1 in the opening game, Wilkens caught fire, pounding eight kills to turn the match around. The Wolverines then scored 18 consecutive points, the final seven of Game 1 and the first 11 of the second game.
“I don’t think we were timid to start the match,” Wilkens said. “We were just waiting around to see what would happen. I wanted to make things happen.”
Outside hitter Brandi Anderson contributed four kills for Simeon.
Class A
Manteno: Shannon Melka had five kills and 12 assists to pace No. 4 St. Francis (36-4) to a 15-1, 15-7 victory over Chicago Christian. Erin Byrd and Lindsey Cotter each chipped in with six kills for the Spartans.