Volleyball: 5 storylines to watch in McHenry County in 2024

The high school volleyball season isn’t far off, with matches starting Aug. 26. Until then, here are five storylines to watch this fall in the Northwest Herald Area.

Is Huntley still the team to beat?

Huntley’s dominance continued last year as the Red Raiders captured back-to-back Fox Valley Conference titles and almost pulled off consecutive seasons without dropping an FVC match.

Huntley dominated the FVC with a 17-1 record and went on to win its seventh straight Class 4A regional title. The Raiders’ season ended in the sectional semifinals with a 25-22, 15-25, 25-20 loss to Warren.

Huntley brings back one of the area’s most imposing players in 6-foot-3 outside hitter Georgia Watson, an NCAA Division I Kentucky commit who tallied 218 kills and 31 aces as a junior.

However, Huntley did lose a lot of big-time players to graduation. The Raiders will have to replace their offensive captain in Morgan Jones (team-high 301 kills), who is now at Missouri, as well as starting setter Laura Boberg, who led area players with 748 assists.

Richmond-Burton looks to repeat

Richmond-Burton went undefeated in the Kishwaukee River Conference and won its first conference crown since 2016. The Rockets came back to beat Woodstock North 23-25, 25-22, 25-16 in a thrilling match to claim the KRC title after the Thunder had won the previous three titles.

The Rockets, however, will be without one of their biggest leaders from the past four seasons. Maggie Uhwat, who led the team with 315 kills, is now at Central Michigan. R-B brings back a lot of talent in its quest to go back to back, including senior outside hitter Elissa Furlan (253 kills, 212 digs), who will play at Wright State, as well as senior setter Alex Hopp (739 assists, 75 aces), a Wisconsin-Oshkosh commit.

Woodstock was second in the KRC last year with a 12-2 record, followed by Woodstock North (10-4), Johnsburg (7-7) and Marengo (7-7).

Woodstock North is always a contender for the KRC title and brings back talented senior Devynn Schulze (Illinois State commit), who played libero last fall and had 298 digs and 48 aces for the Thunder.

Woodstock lost a big offensive threat in Hallie Steponaitis (now at Iowa), who led area players with 565 kills and was the 2023 Northwest Herald Volleyball Player of the Year. The Blue Streaks’ Julia Laidig, a Southern Illinois commit, returns for her final season after recording 634 assists, 51 kills, 59 aces and 163 digs a year ago.

Who are the FVC contenders?

Huntley ran away with the FVC last year with a 17-1 record, which was five wins ahead of runner-up Crystal Lake Central (12-6) in the conference standings. The only other two teams to finish with a record over .500 were Prairie Ridge and Crystal Lake South, both going 11-7. Jacobs and Hampshire finished at exactly .500.

Crystal Lake Central returns a pair of dynamic seniors in outside hitter Mykaela Wallen (215 kills, 305 digs, 56 aces) and middle blocker Siena Smiejek (137 kills, 68 blocks).

Prairie Ridge brings back senior setter Grace Jansen (664 assists) and sophomore outside hitter Maizy Agnello (259 kills). The Wolves, though, did lose a big presence in the middle with the graduation of Mackenzie Schmidt (221 kills, team-high 84 blocks).

Crystal Lake South, meanwhile, lost its top hitter in Gabby Wire (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), who had 366 kills in her final season. The Gators will count on senior Morgan Johnson (219 kills, 65 aces) and sophomore Bobbi Wire (131 kills, 282 digs), who played both libero and outsider hitter as a freshman, to lead the way.

New coaches

A handful of new coaches will be taking the reigns this season, including four new voices in the FVC. Alex Muschong, formerly at Harvard, takes over at McHenry; Hilary Agnello, who previously coached at McHenry, is at Prairie Ridge and gets to coach her daughter Maizy; while Jason LeBlanc, formerly at Marengo, takes over at Dundee-Crown and Danielle Smith is at Hampshire.

Allison Jasinski now is the head coach at Marengo and Doug Wilbrandt will lead Marian Central.

State aspirations

The last area team to appear in the state tournament was Prairie Ridge, which placed fourth in the 4A tournament in 2018.

Huntley has been the closest to making it to state since then, falling just short with supersectional losses in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Huntley (4A), Prairie Ridge (3A) and Woodstock (3A) were the only three area teams to earn a regional title last season. Prairie Ridge made it the farthest and fell to Belvidere North 12-25, 31-29, 25-14 in a wild sectional final.

Who will make the longest playoff run in 2024?