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Maine East Survives Host Maine West For Huge Confidence Booster


It wasn’t the prettiest game you’ll ever see, but Maine East (11-18, 3-6 CSL North) escaped a three-set thriller over Maine West (12-12, 5-3 CSL North) Wednesday, Oct. 16 in Des Plaines during the annual Volley for a Cure match.

Maine West and Maine East volleyball players gather together as one to show unity in the fight for breast cancer awareness.

Maine East won, 25-21, 20-25, 27-25, in a battle that never saw either team separated by more than 6 points over the three sets. West led 22-16 in the second set for the largest lead of the night. The teams tied 30 times throughout the match.
“When I called a timeout, I said it’s all about who wants it more,” Maine East coach Rintu Philip said. “You want it or they want it. Our girls went out like they wanted it more. The atmosphere here was great. This (type of) atmosphere is why we play volleyball.”
While Philip was excited with the end result, he wasn’t happy at times with his team’s play.

Maine East players have fun and stay loose in pregame huddle.

Philip was upset with his team late in the third set when they went down 16-12, but his fiery speech during a late timeout must’ve worked because the Blue Demons responded with a 10-4 run to take a 22-20 lead.

Maine East coach Rintu Philip talks with his team during a timeout.

“I lost it for a second,” Philip said. “I was saying fundamentals, it’s about the things we can control. I’m OK if a team hits the ball and we shank the ball. But bad serves back to back to back, you shouldn’t be doing as a varsity player.”
Maine East sat at 11-18 after the win, but Philip said this was a gamechanger for the team this season.

Maine East’s Maida Mululi prepares to serve.

“This is huge, man,” Philip said after the win. “This is a big win, especially going straight into regionals (Tuesday, Oct. 29 at Glenbrook South). It’s been up and down all year. We’ve played teams that are great and played up to their level. We’ve played teams that are not to our level and played down to their level. If we keep playing like this, then things will start to go our way.
“This win will give them more confidence going against No. 4 Glenbrook South. They are a great team. The fact we can play like that, you never know how the outcome will end up.”

Maine East’s Chris Kotsifas claps after a play.

Maine East was led by Chris Kotsifas (15 kills, 6 digs, 1 ace), Emma Matic (16 assists, 2 digs), Daphne Kritikakis (5 digs), Colleen Oribello (3 digs) and Maida Mulali (3 digs).

Maine East’s Emma Matic (11) sets a ball for a teammate.

“Chris is having a great year,” Philip said. “Her numbers and her leadership, is just totally different than what she was last year. She’s really taken over the game. After the way things ended last year, she came up to me and said ‘coach, I want to get better. It’s my senior year, I want to go out and give it my best.’ We had senior night against Niles North last night (Tuesday) and seeing her walk away was emotional for me because I’ve seen her (grow a lot) the last four years.”
Kotsifas isn’t only strong in volleyball, she also made fourth team All-State in girls water polo last year.

Maine East’s Colleen Oribello (5) and Suad Hussein (6) share a laugh before the game.

While the two teams had great moments at times, they also combined for 29 service errors (15 for East, 14 for West). Maine West also struggled with 28 hitting errors in the loss.

West was led by Viviana Ramirez (7 kills), Krysta Block (5 kills, 4 digs, 1 ace), Jaclyn Riedl (4 kills, 6 digs), Bailey Cassidy (4 kills, 3 aces), Adriana Lopez (12 digs, 4 aces), Clare Olson (15 assists, 9 digs, 4 aces) and Jenna Beaver (2 kills, 3 blocks).

Maine West’s Krysta Block (6), Daria Szczepura (7) and Viviana Ramirez (9) clap during introductions.

Maine West played like a yo-yo against East, going up a few points, then giving up a few points, back and forth throughout the match.
“That’s how it’s been, unfortunately, the last four matches or so,” Maine West coach Nora Feyerer said. “It’s frustrating because we are in this rut where we keep having these moments of good play and then we play really inconsistent. We had 14 service errors, which is awful. You can’t win a volleyball game on the varsity level if you have 14 service errors. We also had a boatload (28) of hitting errors.

“What it comes down to is Maine East played really hard and did the most with their talent. They played really well and didn’t make as many errors as we did. We just handed them points with hitting and service errors.”

Maine West coach Nora Feyerer calls out plays.

Feyerer said it comes down to mental toughness. The season’s been inconsistent, according to Feyerer. The Warriors are young, but Feyerer said that’s no excuse.

Maine West’s Krysta Block prepares to serve.

East improved to 2-0 against West this season having beaten the Warriors, 25-20, 26-24, Monday, Sept. 23. In 2018, West topped East in all three games between the District 207 rivals. The two schools split the series each year between 2015-17. East’s last sweep over West was in 2014.
Maine West dropped to 14-15 overall this season following a 2-3 showing at the Pumpkin Tournament they hosted Friday-Saturday, Oct. 18-19. East dropped to 12-22 after going 1-4 in the same tournament.
Maine West plays two regular season games this week (Tuesday vs. Niles North; Thursday vs. Deerfield), before entering the playoffs on the road as the No. 10 seed against No. 5 New Trier Tuesday, Oct. 29.

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