Sky High 16 Black fifth at nationals

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Updated: January 23, 2012 2:40AM

Two Libertyville High School standouts — Cindy Zhou and Kristen Webb — helped the Sky High Volleyball Club’s 16 Black team to a fifth-place finish in the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships, which was held earlier this month in Atlanta.

The prestigious Sky High club, which is based out of Crystal Lake and Vernon Hills, sent 10 teams to the national tournament.

Sky High 16 Black also features two other Pioneer Press Lake Shore players in Rachel Baader (Stevenson) and Layne Self (Lake Zurich).

Sky High 17 Black: This sqaud, which won an AAU National Championship earlier this summer, finished seventh in Atlanta.

“The age group is the deepest in talent nationwide that I have ever seen in my 25-plus years of coaching,” Sky High Executive Director Scott Harris said.

The 17 Black team defeated the defending National Champions from Nebraska and lost a tough quarterfinals match to an Atlanta team, 30-32, 19-25. Among its team members are Mary Striedl (Lake Forest) and Amanda Orchard (Lake Zurichl).

Sky High 15 Purple: This team also made quite a splash, even though it posted a 3-6 record. It was recognized for distributing over 3,500 temporary tattoos to honor breast cancer awareness. The team wore hair ribbons, custom-made tattoos on their wrists and pink sweatbands on their ankles to support the cause. The squad includes Kara Maleski (Stevenson), Alexis and Peyton Bykowski (Stevenson), Haley Nedelka (Carmel), Alex Basler (Libertyville), Alaina Murphy (Buffalo Grove), Elise Palombella (Lake Forest) and Alex Basler (Libertyville).

Wrestling

Kyle May could be primed for a big wrestling season next winter.

The Libertyville High School senior-to-be racked up a 14-0 record at the recent University of Illinois Team Camp to claim an individual title.

The other Wildcat champions in the camp were Steve Polakowski (13-1 record), Colton Bast (13-3) and Mike Coutre (10-4). Polakowski earned a big win over a returning All-State wrestler from Barrington.

Libertyville took fourth in the eight-team event. The second-place finishers from Libertyville were Josh Hirth and Paul Utterback. The Cats who took third were Nick Andrews, Connor Egan, Cory Heffern, Jack Burke, Austin Deardorff, Charlie Meyer, Connor O’Donnell, Austin Pettinato, Serg Ayala and Pat Fitzgerald. In addition, Kayne MacCallum won nine of 10 matches.

The other notable win was earned by Meyer, who beat an All-Stater from Plainfield Central.

The Wildcat dual-meet wins were over Neuqua Valley, Fremd, Rolling Meadows and Wheaton-Warrenville South. The club lost to teams from Plainfield Central, Barrington and LeRoy.

Tennis

Nikita Lunkov of Vernon Hills captured the Boys 15 singles crown at the Warren Junior Open on Sunday. He defeated Scott Seiler of Gurnee (6-3, retire) in the title match.

A couple of Vernon Hills players also reached the final in the Boys 18 doubles. Darren Hoveydai and David Dobrik dropped a 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-1 decision to Gurnee’s Eric and Scott Seiler in deciding match.

Softball

The Libertyville Wildcats 16s went 4-1 and won the recent Grayslake Pride Tournament.

The Wildcats defeated the Northbrook Spartans 10-6 in the final. It was a good win, considering that the Cats lost to them 5-3 in pool play.

Their other wins were over the Wauconda Bulldogs 8-5, McHenry Meteors 7-4 and Grayslake Pride 6-4.

The roster includes Libertyville’s Isabella Alesna, Laura Bonebrake, Erin Coburn, Haley Hoeksel, Dana Kym and Maggie Meyer; Mundelein’s Emily East; Wauconda’s Tiffany Ellis and Jess Kinder; Grayslake’s Cally Hayes; and Buffalo Grove’s Jori Stanton. The team is coached by Jay Mervis, Pete Coburn, Mike Ellis and Phil Kym.

Lacrosse

The Libertyville High School Lacrosse Alumni Group has organized its annual game, which will be played on July 23 (1:30 p.m.) at the LHS Football Stadium. 

Last year, this game raised close to $500 for breast cancer research. The proceeds of this year’s game will go to The Libertyville Food Pantry, which serves more than 400 households in the greater Libertyville area. Monetary and non-perishable food items will be collected at the game. The alumni have also designed special shorts that will be for sale at the game.