Spikers End Oh-For-October Drought With Tourney Title

It's never too late to turn your season around.

The members of the Evanston girls volleyball team made that kind of statement on Saturday at the Wheeling Invitational round-robin tournament.

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The Wildkits went from oh-for-October to a rare regular season tournament championship, sweeping to five straight wins and showing the kind of growth that head coach Mike McDermott has been hoping for since the start of the season.

Ironically, McDermott wasn't there to witness a rare achievement for the program. He was absent watching his daughter play for her collegiate team. Evanston's last tournament title of any kind probably happened before any of the current squad members were even born.

The Wildkits hadn't won a single match since the calendar flipped over to October from September. But assistant coaches Shan Waterloo and Keegan Joyce guided the Kits to wins over Wheeling (26-24, 27-25), Elgin Larkin (25-13, 25-11), Zion-Benton (25-14, 25-10), Highland Park (25-23, 25-17) and Grayslake Central (19-25, 25-21, 15-8) on a long and fruitful Saturday.

Sophomore outside hitter Nina Williams broke loose for a team-high 42 kills for the tourney champs, including double figure performances in three of those matches.

Now 14-19 overall on the season, Evanston also avenged earlier losses to both Highland Park and Grayslake this fall to claim that first place trophy.

So how did the Kits flip the script?

"They played free --- and I loved watching that," said Waterloo. "They weren't worried about outcomes today. And I'm OK with whatever errors we make as long as we're playing aggressive. We have to make sure we're still playing with some kind of tempo, instead of slowing things down when we do make mistakes. I think we flowed a lot better from defense to offense today.

"It was fearless fun for them," added Joyce. "Our serving was a lot more dialed in, and so was our serve receive, and they were a lot more comfortable taking risks out there. Everyone knew their roles and what they needed to do for us to win."

It also helped to have Williams on their side, although the champs received contributions from multiple players on their way to the crown. Newly-named team captain Isabel Amat hammered down 6 kills versus Elgin Larkin, sophomore Eleanor Ey was a game-changer in his first week as a libero, and senior Genevieve Parker was a steady force as a server, setter and back row standout.

Evanston's depth allowed Williams and a couple of other starters a chance to get a break in the middle of the competition, a luxury few Wildkit teams in the past enjoyed in the grind of a one-day or two-day tournament.

Williams came out swinging against Highland Park (12 kills) and Grayslake Central (13 kills) and has developed into a go-to offensive force in just her second high school season.

She didn't stop attacking even when she went through a stretch of hitting errors that helped Highland Park stay with the Wildkits late in the first set. The Giants trailed 19-13, climbed back almost even at 19-18, before Williams' back row kill and a net serve accounted for the 24th and 25th points.

The second set was also a nail-biter for ETHS fans until the winners pulled away with a 6-1 surge to close out the win, as Williams contributed two kills and a block for a point and Jovana Mirtchev provided an ace serve.

"Today was my best day for a high school match," Williams said. "I'm really happy that we won. Our serve receive got a lot better and that helped us run our attack. And our confidence in our swings (on offense) was a lot better, too.

"We're running a new serve receive this year, something we've never run before, and we haven't really gotten used to it until now. It's supposed to stop other teams from getting aces and it definitely works.

"In club, if I make a mistake hitting I just come back and try again. I feel like you can't do much if you're out there just taking half swings and I don't like to ever give up on swinging hard. You don't want to be scared to make mistakes. You have to trust yourself."

"Nina did make a few mistakes, but nobody was too concerned," Waterloo explained. "It's the law of averages. She's a good hitter and we know it's worked before for her, and it will work again."

The final round matched two tourney unbeatens and Grayslake grabbed the upper hand in the first set, prevailing with an 8-3 run to finish off the Kits as back-to-back ace serves by Joslyn Salzman pushed the Rams to within two points of that win.

But Evanston outplayed the Rams in the second set and the champs never looked back after breaking in front 5-1 in the decisive third set on kills by Williams, freshman Chiara Hauser, and senior Norah Williams.

Evanston will close out the regular season against Central Suburban League South division foes New Trier and Maine South. The Kits own the No. 9 seed in the Class 4A Schaumburg Sectional tournament and will play No. 8 seed Addison Trail at 7p.m. on Oct. 27 in the first round of the Loyola Academy Regional.