Warrior Volleyball Shows Fight, But Falls Short Against Spartans

got off to a forgettable start to the season, but a little bit of lineup tinkering has helped the team play better.

Warriors’ coach Randy Tiller shuffled the lineup recently, moving Katie Fitzgerald from outside hitter to middle hitter, and saw better results. The Warriors beat Deerfield and Maine East last week to regain confidence following a 1-15 start to the season.

Despite the recent improvements, facing undefeated Central Suburban League North leader Glenbrook North was a tough task for the visiting Warriors. They fell to the Spartans 25-16, 25-21 in Northbrook on Thursday.

Earlier:

Fitzgerald led Maine West with six kills at GBN.

“Our block is improved, our serving is strong,” Tiller said. “It’s such a mental game that if we come in with the right attitude we can challenge very good teams, and that’s what we have to do all of next week and going into the state series.”

The Warriors (3-18, 2-5) drew the No. 11 seed in the Glenbrook South sectional; the Spartans (16-6, 7-0) received the No. 5 seed.

The Spartans wore pink Thursday in support of breast cancer awareness during “GBN Goes Pink” week at the school. Students, faculty and parents bought pink shirts to raise money during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“It is cool,” Abby Shamis, senior, said. “Since I’ve been a freshman we’ve been doing it. It’s for a good cause.”

On the court, GBN showed off its depth in the straight set win. Many of the starters didn’t play in the second set and the result was the same.

Spartans’ coach Chris Cooper said there was not much difference between his first and second teams.

“You can see even in that match that both games pretty much went the same way,” Cooper said. “To be realistic I don’t think either one was sharp. I don’t think we played horribly, but we weren’t really sharp.”

In game one Maine West jumped out to an 11-6 lead before Cooper called a timeout that preceded a 9-1 run that turned the game around.

The Spartans kept the momentum rolling in game two with a completely different lineup, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and never trailing. The Warriors fought off a few match points, but couldn’t complete the come back.

“I was pleased with the fight we gave a very good GBN team,” Tiller said. “Apart from the first five points we spotted them it was a close match the whole way.”

Tiller said Maddie Plantz served well at the very end, trying to tie the game up.

Plantz added four kills, but Tiller said he was happy to see Fitzgerald as more of an attacking presence for the Warriors since making the move to the middle.

“Katie Fitzgerald of course had a strong match,” Tiller said. “She was moved from the outside to the middle and she’s been more of a block threat, but tonight six kills from the middle. Alyssa (Bojarski), her setter, was making more use of her in the middle.”

Glenbrook North travels to Lake Zurich for a match on Monday while Maine West plays at Maine East Tuesday.

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