Oak Forest takes down Evergreen Park

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:10PM

Oak Forest girls volleyball coach Amanda Brown said her team has no superstars. At least, that is, until they need one.

Senior Brittany Doyle stepped into the hero's role Tuesday, delivering seven kills in a monster third-game performance to lift the second-seeded and host Bengals to a 25-22, 21-25, 25-21 win over No. 3 seed Evergreen Park in a Class 3A sectional semifinal.

Oak Forest (21-16) will meet top-seeded Illiana Christian (29-4) - a 25-20, 25-23 winner over Rich Central - in Thursday's sectional championship.

"We like to spread the ball around and get everyone involved," Brown said. "Brittany has the potential to take over at times, though. She can be that superstar for us."

The Bengals jumped to a 6-0 lead in the rubber game behind the serving of Alyssa Hasman (10 kills, 10 digs). Evergreen Park (15-15) never fully recovered, though it did go on a 10-3 run to pull to within 18-16.

In the end, it was too much Doyle (12 kills, eight digs). She answered with three kills during a 5-2 Bengals run that wrapped up the victory and vengeance for a regular-season loss to the Mustangs.

"(Evergreen Park) had great servers," Doyle said. "We had to shake off all our mistakes and we forgot about them in Game 3."

The Mustangs' aggressive serving - they finished with seven aces and 11 service errors - gave the Bengals' fits early.

Oak Forest survived despite giving up five aces in Game 1, but strong serving keyed a 7-2 Mustangs run that broke open Game 2, which had been tied at 10.

"We just had to buckle down," Hasman said. "When there are serves you can't get to, you have to make yourself get there."

Kellie Danaher (18 assists), Mary Nielsen (15 assists) and Ashley Freeze (five kills) contributed for Oak Forest. Erin Crane (nine kills, two aces), Emma Point (three aces) and Megan Beckow (four kills) led the Mustangs.

In the first semifinal, Felicia Schaap (eight kills), Jaclene Bonnema (seven kills, two blocks) and Katie Larson (six kills) led Illiana Christian past fifth-seeded Rich Central.

Nakeyta Clair led Rich Central (18-16) with eight kills and two blocks and Rhondalynn Coleman added three kills.

The Vikings (29-4) struggled at times to deal with the height advantage of Clair and the Olympians, but won the big points down the stretch of both games.

"I had trouble getting around their humongous blocks," Bonnema said. "We had to do a lot of tips. We want to keep going and see if we can get to state."

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