New Trier sets tone early, knocks off Loyola to claim sectional

There’s a first time for everything, and New Trier volleyball picked the best time for that first time.

Notorious slow starters this season, according to their coach Hannah Hsieh, the Trevians jumped all over Loyola Academy in the first set, triggering a frenzied atmosphere in their home gym in the sectional championship on Thursday, Nov. 7, in Winnetka.

“I’m so proud of our girls,” Hsieh said. “We came ready to play. We felt like we prepared them well, the girls felt ready, and they showed up and played.”

The fast start carried the No. 2 Trevians to a sweep of the No. 1 Ramblers, 25-18, 25-23, to claim a second consecutive sectional title. The victory also concluded an undefeated home record for New Trier, which went 14-0 on its Winnetka home court.

Hsieh said her team talked about setting the tone with a couple of early blocks, and Cali Cremascoli and Kit Kat McGregor obliged. McGregor added three early kills as well to help her team to a 7-1 advantage in Set 1.

Loyola shrank an eight-point deficit (11-3) to two (20-18) late, but the home team responded with a five-point burst, punctuated by a Lily Long kill to take the set.

“They came out hot,” Ramblers coach Lionel Ebeling said of New Trier. “We kind of weathered the storm and fought our way back in. … I am proud of the girls because they never gave up. It would have been easy to feel sorry for ourselves being down 7-1 in front of this type of atmosphere, but we didn’t. We fought, we battled, and that shows character.”

The Ramblers awoke to begin the second set, jumping out to a 5-1 advantage, but the Trevians hung in. Down 17-11, New Trier scored seven of the next eight points to tie the set at 18-18.

In the final stretch, the Trevians got kills from McGregor and Cremascoli and two apiece from Long and Serena Bauer, a sophomore swinging from the right side.

The spotlight was on Long, a senior co-captain, after her match-clinching kill, but she redirected it onto her teammates.

“I’m really proud of my team,” she said. “We’ve worked so hard. We’ve had a lot of injuries, especially recently, going into playoffs. So we’ve had a lot of changes and I think we’ve done a really good job as a team getting together and supporting each other. 

“Some people are playing in positions they’re not used to playing. We’ve had to bring people up (from lower-level teams). And everyone is doing their part and executing. If we had one less person, we would not have been able to come this far.” 

A big key to the Trevians’ victory was their aggressive service, which tested Loyola’s defense and made it hard for the Ramblers to transition to their offensive sets.

Loyola’s star outside hitter Grace Kreutz finished with 4 kills but did not see many attempts at the net. Ellen Gundlach led the Ramblers with 5 kills, while Audrina Harvey added 4.

McGregor had a match-high 9 kills. Long followed with 7, while Sonja Keneally chipped in 4 and Emma McHatten 3.

The offensive activity from New Trier middles Keneally and Cremascoli was by design.

“We wanted to pass and try to keep our middles involved,” Hsieh said. “We know a lot of teams camp out on our pin (hitters), especially our outsides, but we needed our middles involved because we know (Loyola) usually just puts one (blocker) up and we knew our middles had the advantage.”

The Trevians advance to the final eight and a 4A supersectional rematch with Benet Academy at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11, at St. Charles North High School. The Redwings topped the Trevians 25-19, 25-14 in the same spot a year ago en route to a runnerup finish in Class 4A. This season, Benet has been atop the state rankings all season long and has lost just once — it was to Loyola.

New Trier has lost six times on the season, but Hsieh and Long agreed that the Trevians are playing their best volleyball at the best moment.

“Since the playoffs, we’ve moved up to a whole other level,” Long said. “We really have come together as a team. After those hard losses, we didn’t take it personally. We realized we could have done better and moved forward. We kept the feelings, and what it feels like to lose, but we also pushed through it and didn’t let it sit with us.” 

Loyola Academy ends with a school-record 32 wins, anchored by a set of 10 seniors, including starters Kreutz, Gundlach, setter Julia York, libero Ava Swanson, outside hitter Mimi Gourley and middle Addison Leadbetter.

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