Left: With Anna Carman urging her on, Sarah Deschampe hit the floor to “dig” the ball and set up her teammates in the frontcourt. Above: Breanna Peterson went up high to spike the ball in a recent game.
The Cook County volleyball team season came to an end on Friday, October 19 when they lost in the third round of the Section 7A play-offs to the number 1 ranked Carlton Bulldogs 25-18, 25-11 and 25-13.
“We were awesome on defense against Carlton,” said Head Coach Pam Taylor. “I thought Sarah Deschampe’s arms were going to fall off from digging the ball off of the floor. Their coach came over at the end of the match and told us how impressed he was with our improvement over the season. They beat us pretty bad earlier. Offensively we couldn’t get it going like we would have liked. But overall we played really well.”
Taylor will lose five seniors to graduation. “We’re going to miss Jessica’s [Berg-Collman] setting and Breanna’s [Peterson] great serving. Megan Lehto blocked well in the frontcourt and Sarah Deschampe was awesome in the backcourt as our Libero. I thought Anna Carman was our most consistent player on the team this year. She’s a good allround player.
“Overall I was very pleased with the season. The kids didn’t give up. They kept fighting in their matches and played smart, hitting to the open spots on the court. We only had one big hitter, Linden [Sutton], so we had to find the open holes to hit it [the ball] to,” said Taylor.
Coming back for the Vikings will be three juniors, Morgan Mixdorf, a strong setter and good allaround player, said Taylor; Jami Sjogren, a middle hitter who Taylor said was her most improved player this season, and Carrie Palmer, who will replace Sarah Deschampe as the team’s Libero, Taylor said.
Sophomores returning include Madison Roy, a strong setter and very strong server, Linden Sutton, a big hitter who is the team’s best allaround player, and Lily Gruber-Schulz and Trace McQuatters, who didn’t see a lot of playing time this season but will see a lot of action next year.
“We also have a strong group of eighth and ninth graders coming up,” Taylor said. “We should have a good team. It’s going to be exciting.”
The Vikings ended their season with a 12-8 overall record and 6-4 in conference play. They finished third out of 12 teams in the Polar League.
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