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...

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 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 ...

Naperville Central is one of 128 teams hoping to extend its IHSA tournament run when it joins the field at the Bolingbrook Class 4A sectional beginning this week. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Here it is, Illprepvb.com’s not-so-brief look at the 32 sectionals feeding into 16 supersectionals that will provide four fields of four semifinalists in each class November 15-16 at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal. Class 4A Fremd supersectional At Warren sectionalLibertyville (27-10) vs. Lake Forest (28-8)Cary-Grov...

Sterling's Brooklyn Borum smashes one of her 12 kills past the block of Nazareth's Izzy Decker (3) and Danielle Wojtycki (8). (Photos by Dave Ruggles) By Randy WhalenSpecial to Illprepvb.com NORMAL – The Borum twins felt right at home Friday at Redbird Arena.That showed as they led Sterling back to the IHSA Class 3A championship match.The Borums combined to bang home 19 kills as the defending state champion Golden Warriors defeated Nazareth, 25-18, 25-19, in the first 3A semifinal at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University...

Paige Lauterwasser (14) and her Naperville North teammates suffered their first loss in the DuPage Valley Conference on Thursday. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorGone is longtime setter Anna Jaworski, who is busy setting all kinds of records at Southern Illinois University.Gone, too, are middle hitter Ellie Hall and outside hitter Eva Hartung, who were a big part of Naperville North’s unbeaten season last spring.So there are a lot of new faces on the Huskies’ side of the court this fall. But there is one familiar face.“Yeah, we only d...

Sterling libero Lexi Rodriguez announced that she will graduate early and start her college career at Nebraska in January, bypassing her senior season for the two-time defending IHSA Class 3A champions. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Sterling's Lexi Rodriguez The next time Sterling’s Lexi Rodriguez digs a ball in anger will not happen in the Land of Lincoln.It will happen in Lincoln, Nebraska.Rodriguez, ranked No. 10 in the 2021 recruiting class according to Prepvolleyball.com, announced last week that she will graduate from high school early ...

Sterling junior Lexi Rodriguez, a Nebraska recruit, assumed an expanded role as libero and setter to help lead the Golden Warriors to a second consecutive IHSA Class 3A championship. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Today, we continue to announce the Illprepvb.com 2019 Girls All-State Volleyball Team with those players named to the Second Team. Coaches across Illinois were invited to nominate players to the Illprepvb.com all-state team. Team members were selected based upon their accomplishments on the court and in the classroom as high school stu...

Plainfield North's Ariel Amaya gets past the block of Waubonsie Valley's Gabi Croll (7) and Aryanna Ruffin (8) during Monday's second sectional semifinal at Bolingbrook. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) Waubonsie Valley’s Melissa Walden didn’t recognize her team while it was being – to put it politely – pounded by Plainfield North in the first game of their Class 4A sectional semifinal Monday at Bolingbrook. “After the first set, we knew that's not how we play as a team,” she said. “We started pulling ourselves together in the second set, and knew ...

Newark's Madi Malone (far right), who recently committed to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and her Adversity G17 Adidas teammates battled their way into the Bracket A championship match of the 18&17 Open division Saturday at the 1st Alliance Volleyball Center in Woodridge. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) The congratulatory handshakes before and after every match gave way to knocking elbows and a few scattered fist bumps as participants in the second-to-last day of the Windy City Power League deferred to what is becoming the new nationa...