St. Francis (far court), which has elected to play up in the Class 3A tournament starting next week, and Class 2A Chicago Christian were among the teams that participated in Blocktober Fest last weekend at Planfield Central. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) How many boundary-restricted public schools can lose their second-leading attacker and one of their top setters/hitters from the previous season and still manage to survive, let alone thrive?Not many, unless you’re Barrington.The Fillies lost 6-5 outside hitter and South Carolina recruit Ca...

SPVB 18 Lenny finished third in the 18 Premier division at the AAU/JVA Chi-Town Boys Challenge on November 19-21. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorWhile we were sleeping … While the Illinois high school girls were completing their run to the IHSA finals in Normal, boys’ club teams throughout the state began in earnest. So, it’s time to play a little catch-up.Today, we start with a look at the top 18s teams in Illinois. All but Blue Steel – which competes in the HPSTL Ladder Series in St. Louis -- have completed three of four se...

Paige Lauterwasser (right) and Naperville North crashed the 1st Alliance VBC/Illprepvb.com Class 4A rankings at No. 4 this week. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Getting to the top is sometimes easier than staying there.Benet Academy’s 6-3 junior outside hitter Ava Novak said it best Saturday.“When you’re winning a lot, sometimes you don’t come out as strong because you just expect to play great,” she said after the Redwings were stifled by Naperville North, 25-22, 25-20, in the championship game of the St. Charles East Scholastic Cup at the Gre...

Macomb's Kennedy Adair recorded her 1,000th career kill during Saturday's tournament at Quincy Notre Dame. That’s a wrap on the 2022 regular season. Now the real fun begins.Less than three weeks from today, the IHSA will crown champions in four classes. The road to Redbird Arena has more potholes than an Illinois winter. Who will navigate it best?That question, and more, will be answered in the next few weeks.Meanwhile, here are the final regular-season 1st Alliance VBC/Illprepvb.com Girls High School Rankings:Class 4A (last week’s rank...

Kirsten Krammer (15) and the Benet Academy Redwings climbed two spots in this week's Class 4A rankings after winning the Wheaton Classic championship Saturday. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Oh, that IHSA has a sense of humor. The sectional pairings were released last week, and among the not-so-surprising surprises (?) were the assignments of private school powers and 2021 2A semifinalists (Lombard) Montini and Chicago Christian to the same supersectional. Of course, newly crowned No. 1-ranked IC Catholic Prep and the Abby VanderWal-led...

York junior outside hitter Emelyn Stettin (8) and the Dukes took down Hinsdale Central last week and have two matches this week before hosting Glenbrook South and Lyons next Monday and Tuesday. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Short and sweet. That’s how we’ll keep the introduction to this week’s rankings. However, we would like to take this time to thank the folks at Rochester for their wonderful hospitality Saturday. We arrived unannounced (it was a late – actually early Saturday morning -- decision to make the 360-mile round trip) and th...

Mother McAuley junior outside hitter Ellie White (8) was named the tournament MVP after leading the Mighty Macs to the championship of the ASICS Challenge last weekend. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) It was a hiccup. Mother McAuley, which lost back-to-back matches to Marist and Assumption (Louisville, Kentucky) heading into last weekend’s ASICS Challenge, rediscovered its mojo Saturday by beating Hamilton (Sussex, Wisconsin), Skutt Catholic (Omaha, Nebraska) and Notre Dame Academy (Park Hills, Kentucky) to win the 24-team event. “We hav...

Mother McAuley won five matches, four of them in three sets, to win the Louisville Invitational Volleyball Tournament last weekend. As one might expect after three weeks of play, there were a few changes in the rankings since our preseason poll came out in late August. But a few things did not change. Mother McAuley continues to rule Class 4A following its championship at the Louisville Invitational Volleyball Tournament last weekend at the KIVA Center in Louisville. The Mighty Macs broke a 15-15 tie in the third set to defeat (L...

1st Alliance 17 Gold reigns atop the volleyball world in the 17 age group after winning the Open division at the 2022 USAV Girls Junior National Championship in Indianapolis. The girls club season ended last week and today’s rankings feature 1st Alliance Volleyball Club entries heading each of the 17s, 16s and 15s age groups. But all these girls will have little time to rest with the high school season starting in less than a month.Here are the final Michio Chicago VBA/Illprepvb.com Girls Club Rankings for 2021-22:17s1. 1st Alliance 17...

630 Volleyball 17-1's 10th place finish in Orlando last week was easily the highest by any Illinois entry in the 17 Open division. (Photo courtesy of AAU) Thursday’s wrap-up of the 2022 USAV Boys Junior National Championship at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, signaled the end of the 2021-22 boys’ club season.Led Nathan Finck (O'Fallon) and the Massey brothers -- 6-4 freshman Riley and 5-11 junior Trent (St. Louis DeSmet), Boys BSVBC 14-1 (Blue Steel, O'Fallon, Illinois) finished in second place in the 17 USA div...