Maine South Serves Up Win Over Kits In Regional Opener

Good teams will always expose your weaknesses on the volleyball court, especially when you play them for the third time.

Maine South didn’t waste any time setting the tone against Evanston Tuesday night at the Class 4A Evanston Regional tournament at Beardsley Gym.

The No. 6 seeded Hawks capitalized on Evanston’s poor service reception and passing, built a 10-2 lead in the first set and never looked back on their way to punching a ticket to the championship game with a 25-8, 25-17 victory.

Maine South, now 20-12, will meet No. 3 seed DePaul Prep on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the title match. DePaul eliminated Maine East 25-17, 25-15 in the other regional semifinal.

Evanston (11-25) never got untracked on offense. Freshman Nina Williams led the Wildkits with just five kills and that wasn’t enough to prevent the season (and career) from ending for the seven seniors on the varsity roster.

It’s not the first time this year the Kits have experienced issues receiving serves, but now it’s the last time.

“This was not our best effort tonight,” admitted ETHS head coach Mike McDermott. “We had some players who stepped up, and it was a great learning experience for some of our younger players about playoff pressure. But we’ve gotten into a place on certain occasions when we put ourselves in a hole we couldn’t get out of because of our serve reception, and tonight was one of those nights.

“We spent a half hour earlier today just working on serve reception and we looked real good then. But Maine South served tough and mentally we weren’t always ready for that next ball. Serve reception has been our weak link all year. (Senior) Siena Bowen has done a great job back there --- she’s improved a lot --- but when some of them struggled we had to move some pieces around just to cover ourselves.”

The Hawks were credited with seven ace serves in the two sets combined. Back-to-back aces by Teagan Heneghan were part of a 5-0 run that put the hosts back on their heels to start the night and things got worse for the Kits before they got better.

Evanston trailed 20-5 at one point in the first set before an ace by Sophie Burda and a Williams hitting error accounted for the last two points.

The Kits were more competitive in the second set, closing to within 9-7 on a tip by junior Laila Ransom and a hit by the Hawks that sailed out of bounds. But ETHS mishandled a pass on the next possession and Maine South responded with a 7-0 run to put the match out of reach.

McDermott is in a rare position in an attempt to move the program forward next year, though. Unlike past head coaches, who couldn’t find a reliable hitter to go to in crunch time, McDermott returns two freshmen starters in Williams and Jovana Mirtchev, and Ransom worked her way into the starting lineup after moving up from the junior varsity squad in the final two weeks of the season. They could form a formidable front line and Mirtchev is a capable setter/hitter who can adapt to the role that the coach’s daughter, Casey, filled for the past three seasons.

“I’m sad for the seniors, but I’m super excited about the future,” said the ETHS coach. “We can start a front row of people who can get kills even against good blockers next year. Those seniors were the heart and soul of the leadership for this team, and now they’re all going away. Who will step in and fill that role?

“We have a lot of other good freshmen in the program. Will they step up as leaders? Will it be Laila or Nina? Are there other young kids who can do it, maybe a rising junior we don’t know about yet? We don’t know yet and I think that’s exciting.

“Obviously we played better in the second set tonight. We just need to have that confidence, that championship mindset right from the beginning of a match and not sit there and wait to see what happens before we believe in ourselves.”