PALATINE, Ill. – The #4 Harper College volleyball team placed fourth out of six teams at the Harper College Invite on Saturday.  The Hawks won their first match of the day but lost their final two matches against two of the best teams in the nation, #4 Moraine Valley Community College (Div. II) and #2 Rock Valley College.  Erinn Hellweg (Wauconda, Ill., Wauconda) and Kelly Sommers (Arlington Heights, Ill., Buffalo Grove) were selected to the All-Tournament team.
 
The Hawks began the day with a sweep of Elgin Community College (25-15, 25-9, 25-22).  Harper was difficult to stop on the service line, tallying 13 aces, including five from Hellweg, four from Rebekah Hischke (Algonquin, Ill., Dundee Crown) and three fromClara Moravec (Lake in the Hills, Ill., Jacobs).  Hellweg led the team with eight kills, 16 digs and three blocks and Stephanie Igielski (Streamwood, Ill., St. Edwards) added six kills. Moravec also had two blocks and Sam Wallenberg (Elk Grove, Ill., St. Viator) had ten digs.  Valerie Bazemore (Houston, Tex., Westfield) directed the offense with 26 assists.
 
 “Valerie Bazemore (Houston, Tex./Keller) did a nice job setting this match,” said head coach Bob Vilsoet.  “And when Stephanie Igielski (Streamwood, Ill./St. Edwards) plays well, it seems Harper plays well.  We played well in this first match of the day.”
 
The team showed improvement in their next match, a five-set loss to Moraine Valley (20-25, 21-25, 25-15, 25-18, 12-15).  In two previous matches with the Cyclones, the Hawks were swept both times.  Hellweg had another monster game with 20 kills and ten digs, one of three Hawks to record double-doubles.  Sommers had 47 assists and 27 digs while Sarah House (Crystal Lake, Ill., Crystal Lake South) had 10 kills and 14 digs.  Moravec finished with eight kills while Igielski and Hischke added seven kills apiece.  Hischke was also a presence on defense with 3.5 blocks.  Alyse Kolner (Crystal Lake, Ill., Marion Central) tallied 21 digs while Megan Kollmeyer (Tustin, Mich., Pine River) and Hischke each had 11 digs.
 
“We came close to being the first team this year to defeat Moraine Valley,” Vilsoet said.  “We lost in five sets, but more encouraging was that we actually outscored them by five points in the match.  We must learn how to close out these games, especially when we have the lead late in the match.  This was a very exciting match to watch.”
 
Matched up in the third place match with Rock Valley, Harper was unable to solve their conference rival as Rock Valley defeated Harper for the third time this season (22-25, 22-25, 23-25).  Hellweg led the team on attack for the third straight game with seven kills while House and Hischke added six and five kills, respectively.  Moravec had her typically strong game on the service line with three aces and Hellweg had ten digs.  Sommers finished with 22 assists and four kills.
 
“This was a good tournament for Harper College, even though we lost a close match to undefeated Moraine Valley in five sets and to Rock Valley in three close sets,” Vilsoet said.  “We are trying different things, and learning about ourselves, finding out about our weaknesses and hopefully going about fixing those.  We have improved tremendously since the beginning of the year, and are encouraged by what we are seeing.  We have a very tough schedule to close out the year with tournaments in Springfield next weekend and in Rockford the week after that and before the regional tournament.”
 
Up next, Harper returns to N4C action at Milwaukee Area Technical College on Tuesday.  First serve is scheduled for 6:00 PM.