Girls Volleyball: Ryan, Oak Forest Spike Evergreen Park Photo:
Behind Gina Ryan’s offensive attack, the Bengals earn a 25-15, 25-20 home victory over the Mustangs.

After a lackluster performance at the Falcon Blue and Gold Classic last weekend, the Oak Forest girls volleyball team was in need of a quick turnaround.

The defending sectional champion Bengals got exactly that on Tuesday night, playing one of their best games of the young season to start the match and then hanging on to beat Evergreen Park 25-15, 25-20 at Oak Forest.

“We were talking, everything was great,” Oak Forest outside hitter Gina Ryan said. “There were great sets and great passes today. We had a lot of energy today.”

Oak Forest (3-4, 1-0 South Suburban Conference) had its offense clicking from the get-go. Ryan had four early kills to help give the Bengals a quick 11-3 lead. Junior setter Kate Zickus was passing beautifully, and that set up a number of easy hits for Oak Forest’s outside and middle hitters.

A string of good serves, including back-to-back aces from senior libero Jill Krygowski, put Oak Forest up 23-8, but Evergreen Park (1-2, 0-1 South Suburban Conference) fought back with a 7-1 run, forcing Oak Forest to call a timeout. A mis-hit by Evergreen Park’s Megan Beckow on the ensuing point gave Oak Forest the opening game.



“They used our defense as a punching bag, basically,” Evergreen Park coach Carrie Berry said.

Oak Forest struggled to hit with the same accuracy as it had in the opening game, enabling Evergreen Park to get out to an early 7-6 lead in game two. The Mustangs played better defense and senior Sam Rule was able to win a couple of key points from her setter position.

“Our ball control was better, so if your ball control is there and you’re passing and serve-receive and playing defense, then good things happen on offense,” Berry said.

With Evergreen trailing 21-18, middle blocker Patrice Silas came up with a huge block to pull the Mustangs to within two. But Oak Forest won five of the final six points to close out the match, 25-20.

Ryan finished with nine kills and nine digs for Oak Forest, while Zickus had 23 assists. Rule had seven assists for Evergreen Park, and libero Colleen Burns contributed 12 digs.

Berry said that at this stage of the season there is still a lot to work on—especially for a team that is relatively young—but a lot of it is mental. The Mustangs will play in the West Aurora Invitational this weekend, giving them five more games to gain experience.

“They show great potential. They have a lot of energy,” Berry said. “I just think that they’re young and somewhat inexperienced, so they don’t know how to handle it when they do get down in a match or they start losing.”