Palatine Pirates Fall to Saxons

Despite having beaten Schaumburg High School earlier this season at the Conant Early Bird Invitational, the Palatine Pirates varsity girls volleyball team knew it was not going to be an easy match the second time around.

Both teams entered the Sept. 14 rematch with identical 6-3 records, but a strong defense and error-free play were more than enough to propel the Schaumburg Saxons onto a two-set victory over the Pirates.

"You got to give them a lot of credit," Palatine head coach Dan Gavin said after the loss. "Their defense was much better tonight. Their service team was much better tonight. And on the other end of the spectrum, we didn't do a lot of the things that made us successful a couple of weeks ago when we played them."

After falling behind in the first set, Palatine traded points with the Saxon's before a quick run put the Pirates down for the remainder of the set. Despite making a short run of their own to get within five points, it was too little too late as the Pirates would go on to lose the set 25-15.

The second set would not go much better for Palatine, as they quickly went down 9-3 behind the serving of Schuamburg's Rebecca Thompson. She led the charge for the Saxons, racking up 5 kills, while attacking 7-8 during the match and scoring 14 points on 16 serves, including 3 aces.

However, the Pirates did have one more comeback in them as they again got to within five points of the Saxons late in the set. Amanda Hilmer tallied four kills while scoring 11 points on 14 attacks.  Kaley Sierawski went 8-11 on attacks with 1 kill block, while teammate Heather Suiter secured 2 kill blocks of her own.

"We knew that winning against them was going to be a challenge," Saxons' head coach Jeanette Pancratz. We just tried to play with a lot of energy from start to finish."

The Saxons did just that. They fought off the Pirates late run by scoring three out of the last four points, winning the second set 25-19.

Despite the loss, Gavin said he is more than confident in his team's ability to play at an above-average level.

"We have moments of brilliance," Gavin said. "We have moments when we look like a team that can win a state trophy, but we have to find a way to be more consistent and play at those higher levels."