Box Score

PALATINE, Ill. - Head coach Bob Vilsoet earned his 300th victory at Harper College as the #4 Hawks beat Triton College 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 26-24).  Coupled with #6 Madison College's victory over #2 Rock Valley College, Harper is now in a three-way tie for first place in the N4C.  In his 11th year at Harper, Vilsoet is now fifth among active coaches on the career wins list.
 
“Tonight was a memorable night,” Vilsoet said.  “This win marks my 300^th victory coaching at Harper College.  I'm honored to have been coaching at Harper College long enough to accomplish that.”
 
The Hawks can earn a share of the title with a win at the College of DuPage on Tuesday evening.  Since Rock Valley beat Harper twice, Madison beat Rock Valley twice and Harper beat Madison twice, the schools are in a deadlock atop the conference.  All three schools are 9-2.
 
Harper (27-9, 9-2 N4C) put themselves in this position with a solid win over an improving Triton squad.  The Hawks had a great first set with Sarah House (Crystal Lake, Ill., Crystal Lake South) contributing six kills and Kelly Sommers (Arlington Heights, Ill., Buffalo Grove) setting up the offense with 11 assists.  The team missed four serves but were able to overcome that and win relatively easy, 25-15.
 
The Trojans had a better second set but the Hawks were still too much and won 25-20.  Sommers set up Clara Moravec (Lake in the Hills, Ill., Jacobs) and Erinn Hellweg (Wauconda, Ill., Wauconda) for two kills each and Rebekah Hischke (Algonquin, Ill., Dundee Crown) showed her net prowess with four blocks, two of which ended up being kills.  Moravec also had three blocks in the set.
 
Harper fell into an early 7-3 hole in the third set but after a timeout, rebounded to tie the set at 7-7.  Triton eventually built a 21-13 lead, before Madison Rodriguez (Palatine, Ill., Palatine) went back to serve and almost brought the Hawks all the way back at 19-20.  Trailing 24-22, Stephanie Igielski (Streamwood, Ill., St. Edwards) served four straight points to give Harper a 26-24 win and a sweep.
 
House led the way with nine kills while Veronica Dabrowski (Des Plaines, Ill., Rolling Meadows) and Hellweg chipped in six kills each.  Megan Kollmeyer (Tustin, Mich., Pine River) had 14 digs while Sommers and Valerie Bazemore (Houston, Tex., Westfield) had 19 and 15 assists, respectively.
 
Harper plays this weekend at the Lincoln Land College Invitational.  Their first match will be Friday evening against Div. I opponent John A. Logan College, who won a close match at Harper in five sets on Sept. 21.  On Saturday, the Hawks will play Kaskaskia College, Kankakee College and Allen County College.
 
“Regarding this weekend, itt should be very interesting,” Vilsoet said.  “We'll be looking for revenge Friday.  We'll see if the long bus ride is a factor for us.  Erinn Hellweg (Wauconda, Ill./Wauconda) was on the bench for sets three, four and five in that match. So that won't happen again tomorrow night.”
 
“We defeated Kankakee earlier in the season at College of Lake County,” Vilsoet continued.  “They'll be looking for revenge. That will be another good barometer match to see which team has progressed more since then.  Finally, we play a team we've never played before, Allen County College, Kansas.  I think the players are looking forward to this nice weekend away for this highly competitive volleyball tournament.”