Ultimate B16 Gold finished third Saturday at the Palos-B16 Point Series #3. https://youtu.be/6uDvC1_hKmo It had to happen sometime.Ultimate B16 Gold entered Saturday’s Palos-B16 Point Series #3 on the heels of 17 consecutive wins to start the season. After extending its win streak to 18 with a 25-15, 25-20 victory over SPVB B16 Charlie, Ultimate ran afoul of MVC 16-Jake, 14-25, 25-19, 15-7.Ultimate rebounded to beat Adversity 16 Adidas, 25-19, 25-13, in its finale Saturday, and will look to start another long win streak, and avenge it...
Batavia earns USMC/AVCA academic award for the 23rd consecutive year
The 2019 Batavia varsity volleyball team has been awarded the United States Marines Corps (USMC)/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2019-20 academic year. The 2019 Batavia varsity volleyball team has been awarded the United States Marines Corps (USMC)/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2019-20 academic year. The team earned an impressive cumulative grade point average of 3.84 despite the move to remote learning during second semester. Batavia has won th...
Muisenga, Wrobel and Rodriguez are worth watching, and still waiting
Plainfield North's Ella Wrobel, Benet's Rachel Muisenga and Sterling's Lexi Rodriguez were recently named to Volleyball Magazine’s Girls 25 Underclassmen to Watch list. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) https://youtu.be/yhHxJD5w5aU Like many of her peers during these anything-but-typical times, Rachel Muisenga is doing her best to remain ready should the girls’ club volleyball season resume.Working out. Running when weather permits. Or a pick-up volleyball game in her backyard with older sisters Sarah (St. Francis/University of Chicago) who is...
Heldmann, Beaty know they're doing a good job … if nobody notices them
Jon Heldmann of Bolingbrook has worked several boys state tournament games, including this 2019 semifinal between Glenbard West and New Trier. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Bill Beaty became interested in officiating after his daughter finished her playing career at Divernon High School. By Matt Le CrenSpecial to Illprepvb.comLike most officials, Jon Heldmann and Bill Beaty prefer to remain anonymous, hiding in plain sight as the action goes on around them.“Honestly, if we’re doing our jobs, we don’t want people to hear about us,” Heldmann sai...
Facing a COVID-clouded future, Illinois girls’ 2020-21 volleyball season begins
Michio Chicago Volleyball Academy outside hitter Logan Grevengoed and her younger sister, Delaney, will have to wait a few months before taking the court for Chicago Christian. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) If this, then what?If that, then this.“We've got a whiteboard with all these different scenarios,” said Club 1 owner/girls director and Naperville Central head coach Brie Isaacson. “What we will do if this happens. What we will do if that happens.“This is a year we’re just going to have to roll with it,” she said.What promises to be anything ...
Illprepvb.com presents the 100 All-Time Best Illinois Girls Volleyball Players, Nos. 11-20
Barrington's Lexi Zimmerman (17) was a three-time All-Big Ten selection, a three-time AVCA All-American and the Michigan Female Athlete of the Year in 2009-2010. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan Daily) Today, we continue our countdown of the 100 All-Times Best Illinois Girls Volleyball Players with Nos. 11-20. Volleyball has come a long way since the IHSA began sponsoring a state tournament series in 1974. You might be hard-pressed to recognize the game. Not only have the rules changed, but so has the caliber of the athletes who com...
No. 2-ranked Benet hands the ‘keys to the kingdom’ to Muisenga
(Front row, from left) Annie Sobolewski and Hattie Monson and (back row, from left) Colleen McGuire, Maeve Nelligan, Rachel Muisenga, Sophie Gregus and Kyla Kenney hope to lead Benet to its sixth appearance at Redbird Arena in the last nine years. You might say Rachel Muisenga, a setter by trade, served her apprenticeship at Benet the past two years by being on the receiving end of sets instead of setting others.This year, however, the 6-foot junior is getting her chance to run the show.Muisenga and the No. 2-ranked (Class 4A) Redwings ...
The wait is over for DeJarld as Mighty Macs, freshman White rock Joliet Catholic
The belated girls high school volleyball season got underway in earnest Tuesday, including this match between St. Laurence and St. Joseph in Burbank. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) By Randy WhalenSpecial to Illprepvb.comEllie White rattled off the names of a couple of the Mother McAuley legends.“I always wanted to play here,” the freshman outside/right side hitter said Tuesday after starting her first match for the Mighty Macs. “I remember watching girls like Charley Niego and Nancy Kane play here.”White may very well be on her way to joini...
St. Rita eyes third straight Hoffman trip; Naperville North towers, and more
Colin Dahill (16) is one of four starters returning for St. Rita, which lost a heartbreaking three-setter to New Trier in the 2019 IHSA quarterfinals at Hoffman Estates. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Illprepvb.com continues its look at the 2020 boys' high school volleyball season with another set of team previews. Illprepvb.com provides the best in boys volleyball coverage throughout the season anywhere in the state. School: Metea ValleyConference: DuPage ValleyHead coach: John Aister (10th year, 181-143)Last season’s highlights: 16-22 overa...
Top Flight VBC ready to take flight at AAU nationals in Orlando
Top Flight Volleyball Club, which is based in Elgin, is sending five teams to the 47th Annual AAU Girls Junior National Volleyball Championships this week in Orlando, Florida. Top Flight 18 Theta coach Jake Mattern. By Matt Le CrenSpecial to Illprepvb.comTop Flight Volleyball Club didn’t take long to live up to its name.In the 12 years since Cindy Gritzman founded the club with her husband, Sean, the Elgin-based organization has won 15 national titles and grown from an initial 90 players to nearly 2,500. More than 100 Top Flight alums ...