September 1, 2023

St. Laurence @ Wheaton Academy Quad

After an outstanding finish last season, the St. Laurence (Burbank, IL) Varsity Girls Volleyball team was promoted to the GCAC Red Division, which is the top division in their conference and one of the best in the state of Illinois. They are ready to take this season on competing against some of the best teams in Illinois.
The Vikings only graduated 5 seniors and have 7 returners along with some underclassmen who moved up in the ranks. The Vikings started their season last week and were 4-3 going into tonight’s tournament. They participated in the Wheaton Academy Quad. The Vikes won both of their first games in two sets. They started the evening playing Intrinsic (25-4) (25-8) then moved on to Maine West (25-16) (25-13). After four total sets the Vikings faced the host team, the Wheaton Academy Warriors.

SET 1

Despite losing the coin toss, the Vikings went up 6-0. Kayla Birmingham had 5 serves in a row after getting the first point for the Vikes. They quickly got the ball back and Natalie Martinez started with an ace. Only a point later the Warriors called a timeout while being down 8-1. Bella Medina goes for 4 serves herself and Aubrey Martinez backs her up with 3 kills and a block during her run. Birmingham also came up big for the Vikings with 4 kills and multiple serving runs. Wheaton used their final timeout when they were down 19-9. Medina comes in to serve for the game and seals the deal with an ace. St. Laurence Vikings win set one 25-11.

SET 2

The Vikings got to serve first this set up unlike the first set, they started down by 3. Birmingham once again comes up with a big serving run, starting with back-to-back aces. Bailey Doorhy gets her first kill of this game. Outside of the long rallies, the Vikes gave up 6. With the score at 6-5, Warriors, Mia Arroyo came in with a kill to tie the game. A. Martinez with a kill, and then Gabby Seyfarth came up with a huge block to make it 10-9 Vikings.

This game was a battle, the slightest slip-up was noticed, and the Vikings were turning it around. Arroyo came up again with a huge block to scare the Warriors. Wheaton Academy called a timeout down 13-10. Still going back and forth, Birmingham scored, and they got her chance to serve again after helping the Vikings bridge the gap at the start of the game. A. Martinez with a kill then an ace, Seyfarth and Birmingham each had an ace of their own. St. Laurence called a time out only up by one, 22-21. The Warriors slipped up with a net violation allowing Birmingham to widen the win with another ace. Warriors called their final timeout down 24-22. With a swing that winds up out of bounds, the Warriors fell to the Vikings 25-23.

The St. Laurence Vikings came out on top tonight going 3-0 in this quad. The Vikes have the rest of the weekend off and play Stag this upcoming Tuesday at home. These girls have their next conference match-up on the 12th against Mother McAuley. The future is looking bright for this team starting the month 7-3.