Rambler Girls Roundup: Volleyball Team Looks to Rebound

Even the best of high school teams have to overcome some form of adversity during the season and the Loyola Academy volleyball team is no different.

After a tough conference loss on Sept. 22 to St. Ignatius that saw the Ramblers lose in straight games, 18-25 and 16-25, it seems that coach Jenny Morris feels the best cure is optimism.

Earlier: Check out more Loyola Academy sports coverage on Patch.

Her team played Mother McAuley on Tuesday night and prior to the match, when Morris exchanged in e-mails with Patch, she was hoping for her team to take an aggressive approach.

“We have nothing to lose versus McAuley and everything to gain if we play well and aggressively,” she wrote.

Despite the St. Ignatius loss, it was mostly winners for Loyola, which beat a solid Glenbrook North squad 25-20, 25-18 on Sept. 20 and easily handled Gordon Tech 25-8, 25-16 on Sept. 15.

The Rambler record stood at 11-4 as of Tuesday morning.

Off the court Loyola middle hitter Kaitlin Mohr had plenty to celebrate. She gave her verbal commitment to play at Loyola University at New Orleans. Mohr along with setter Esme Condon are considered the Ramblers’ two money players.

Tennis

When the weather didn’t get the best of the Ramblers’ tennis team this week, other teams did.

The storms forced a rainout of the Prospect Invitational last Saturday as well as a match against New Trier on Monday.

As a result, Loyola only competed once over the past week. On Sept. 21, the Ramblers played Highland Park and were beaten easily on almost all courts. The No. 1 doubles team of Meredith Abrahamson and Hannah posted a 6-4, 6-4 loss.

Loyola’s fourth doubles team was the only winner against Highland Park. Meredith O'Brien and Gloria Lee won 7-6,  7-5.

Swimming

On Sept. 22, Loyola beat Benet Academy 113-72.

Senior captain Michelle Garland took first place in the 100-meter breast stroke and junior Maddie Jardeleza took first place in the 100-meter backstroke.

Two freshmen are emerging as swimming stars and have shown the future is bright in the Ramblers' pool. Claire Rushin took first in the 100-meter freestyle and Grace Tierney took first in the 50-meter freestyle.

None of the swimmers have committed to schools yet, according to head coach Mike Hengelmann. But he does anticipate a couple of his swimmers to commit in the near future.

Cross-country

Loyola was hamstrung by injuries Sept. 24 at the Palatine Invitational.

Jackie McDonnell and Caroline Zarowski both missed the meet and the Ramblers took 22nd in the 29-team field with a team score of 588 points. Meet winner, Louisville Assumption, won with a team score of 80 points.

All the scorers for Loyola at the Palatine Invitational are in their first varsity season.

Junior Madeline Durso led the way in 91st place,  Loyola’s best finish. Durso ran a time of 19 minutes, 27.3 seconds. She was followed by sophomore Cecily Martinez who took 112th with a time of 19:49.3, junior Maddy Fassett (114th, 19:50.5), sophomore Ellen Kulik (133rd, 20:08.2) and sophomore Caroline Hague (138th, 20:14.8).

Those five Ramblers' scores counted in the tally.