Bolingbrook, which won the 24-team tournament at Joliet Junior College this summer, looks to build on the success of last spring's team which went 10-3 and posted wins over Joliet Catholic and Lockport. Today is the first day of practice and tryout for hundreds of high schools across Illinois, anticipating that we will have a full and interrupted season of girls volleyball in 2021.As we learned last week, masks will be mandatory at all volleyball events this fall -- practices, matches and tournaments -- but it seems like small price to pa...
Pandemic prompts Oak Lawn's restless Kate Dillon to add golf to busy calendar
When the pandemic forced the cancellation of the fall volleyball season in 2020, Oak Lawn's Kate Dillon decided to take up golf. She also plays basketball and softball at the southwest suburban Chicago school. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Oak Lawn outside hitter Kate Dillon began golfing last fall and has seen her game measurably improve over the past year. By Matt Le CrenSpecial to Illprepvb.comKate Dillon was a girl in search of something to do last fall.The girls’ volleyball season had been postponed until the spring due to the coronavi...
Presenting the Michio Chicago/Illprepvb.com 2021 girls H.S. preseason rankings
Plainfield North's Ella Wrobel (17, far right) is widely considered the best player in the state and will join Big Ten power Wisconsin after graduating this spring. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) You know the season is thisclose when somebody starts asking about rankings. So here we go. Maybe not the answer they’re looking for, but by all calculations, our best guess.Marist, Illprepvb.com’s No. 1 Class 4A team in the preseason in 2018 and again in 2019, is the preseason favorite in 4A again this fall. Marist went on to win it all in 2018, b...
K-8th graders invited to learn and develop basic skills at Club Fusion
Single day per week sessions committed to teaching and developing basic volleyball skills to K-8th graders through high repetition drills formatted solely for youth volleyball. Players will be split up based on their grade. FVA is the youth volleyball academy of Club Fusion Volleyball, one of the nation's top volleyball clubs. Visit www.fusion4kids.com to learn more, or to get registered! Spots are limited so don't wait to get registered! ...
UNO volleyball tryouts set for August 29
Final 2019 Michio Chicago/Illprepvb.com rankings, and what lies ahead?
Zayna Meyer (left) and Wheaton Warrenville South rode some mid-season changes to the IHSA Class 4A finals at Redbird Arena. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) The 2019 season is in the record books.Newark and Sterling repeated. Benet denied Marist’s bid to three-peat. St. Teresa ruled Class 2A. But once again, the tournament reinforced the idea that the final eight teams in each class, if not the final 16, should be seeded, and the “rolling of the peas” abandoned. And while they’re at it, “geographic representation” should be trashed, too.The...
WW South's 'selfless' Bellows, Harris lead Tigers past visiting Marist
Marist's Kylie Brosius, Mary Clare Brusek, Bella Bullington, Chloe Artega and Elise Ward took on Wheaton Warrenville South Monday minus injured junior Kamryn Chaney (far right). Rebecca Bellows is following in the footsteps of Darby Harris and taking one for the team.Two years ago, Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier gave some thought to running a 6-2 with Sarah Burau and Zayna Meyer sharing the setter’s position. That experiment was short-lived, however, and Meyer moved to outside hitter.Meanwhile, Harris, also a setter by trade...
Illini West is in camaraderie-building mode; JCA, York welcome new head coaches
York's Ella Contant (13) and Ella Lawton (16) are two of the few players back from last season's team to greet new head coach Danny Piwowarczyk. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Out with the old – well, not completely – and in with the new.Today, Illprepvb.com continues its look at the 2021 season with previews of two schools welcoming new coaches, a look at a downstate school hoping to blend some veteran players with a few new ones, and a new coop featuring one of the smallest high schools in Illinois.(Last season's record in parenthesis):Fenton (2...
Former Lyons star hopes to turn things around at Downers South; and more previews
Madisen Babich (far right) enjoyed an all-state career at Lyons Township under former coach Joann Pyritz before moving on to Cal State Fullerton. She now tackles another challenge at Downers Grove South. (Photo by Mark Brown for Cal State-Fullerton Athletics). We are just a few days away from the first day of practice for the 2021 Illinois girls’ high school volleyball season.No one is still quite sure what the season will look like. We do know that per Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s order Wednesday, all Illinois K-12 students whether in public or pr...
