Daily Herald Article

PALATINE, Ill. – In Tuesday night's North Central Community College Conference (N4C) volleyball opener, the Harper Hawks put on an impressive showing against top-ranked Madison College. The Hawks (5-2, 1-0 N4C) swept the visiting WolfPack (3-4, 0-1 N4C) in front of an energetic crowd, 25-16, 25-18, 25-16.

"I'm very proud of our team for the way that we played tonight! It was also good to see and hear all the positive support from a very large crowd that came out to watch this meaningful volleyball conference match," said Harper head coach Bob Vilsoet.

The first set started out close with Harper trailing 11-9. The Hawks then scored seven of the eight next points to take a 16-12 lead. Later in the set, back-to-back kills from Adriana Loiacono (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin) put the home team ahead 23-16 on the way to a 25-16 victory over the WolfPack.

The Hawks carried the momentum over into the second set and started behind some strong serving from libero Meghan Chartier (Inverness, Ill./Buffalo Grove), whose ace put Harper ahead 4-0 o. Sarah Berggren (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) played a strong middle of the set with three kills to help Harper build a 14-9 edge. Chartier's serving helped extend the lead to 19-9, and Madison could get no closer than within six points the rest of the way as the Hawks took the set to lead 2-0 in the match.

Harper once again jumped out to an early lead in the third set and maintained the lead at 9-5, 10-7, 11-9, 14-10, and 15-11 before extending it to 17-12. Coming out of a WolfPack timeout, the Hawks scored the next four points and closed the deal for a straight-set victory.

"We're very excited, but it's only the beginning of the season," Chartier said. I think that as a team we can obviously grow. I can't wait to see us at the end of the month."

Loiacono led the Harper attack with a season-best 12 kills, and Daniele Sortino (Elk Grove Village, Ill. /Elk Grove) also reached double figures with 10 kills. Chartier paced a strong defensive effort with 17 digs, and Hannah Moore (/Schaumburg) added 11 digs. Setter Katelyn Sommers (/Buffalo Grove) notched another double-double with 10 digs and 32 assists on the night.

"We got great passes from our defense, and it started a good set, and I just knew I had to put it down. I saw the spots open, and I used it," Sortino said.

"We played very well and clearly want to win," Vilsoet said. "These players have put in a lot of time and effort over the years to get to this point."

Next up for the Hawks is a road matchup at McHenry County College (11-3) on Thursday night at 6 PM.