Strong defense carrying soccer team

Entering the season, defense was a real question mark for the Mundelein High School boys soccer team.

The squad was young on the backline and had to adjust to the loss of superstar goalkeeper Eric Sorby, who decided to focus on club soccer.

But now it seems like ages since anyone had those worries. Through 15 games, the Mustangs were 7-6-2 and Mundelein had given up more than one goal just once in its last 6 contests.

"Our defense has been pretty strong and is getting better on top of it," Mundelein head coach Dave Ekstrom said of the unit that includes sophomores Daniel Marcos, Gabriel Marcos and Robbie Munnings and the seniors Eric Valin and Kevin Burda.

Sophomore goalkeeper Javier Ramirez, who led the freshman team to a 20-1 season in 2007, has seized his opportunity with the varsity and looks like a future star.

"You hate to lose a goalkeeper like Sorby, not only for his skill, but his leadership," Ekstrom said. "But I believed Javier could do the job and I'm comfortable with him. He played well in the summer and I thought he'd do a good job. He's had to learn the game at the varsity level, where the speed of play is faster and the shots are hit with more velocity. He's starting to communicate better with his defense, making all the routine saves and some great saves. He's very acrobatic."

The Mustangs won 2-1 at Libertyville on Saturday. The home team got on the board 4 minutes into the contest, but Mundelein answered 4 minutes later when Bryant Portillo scored off a feed from Nestor Montiel.

Portillo, a junior who is playing his first year of high school soccer, has recently earned a starting forward position.

In the second half, Libertyville had more of the ball, but Mundelein created more scoring opportunities. The game-winner came when Montiel's effort went through the keeper's hands and fell to Nick Neubauer, who slotted it home.

Ekstrom said his team has become more lethal in the final third of the field.

"The offense was creating chances before, but not finishing," he said "The biggest difference is that we're finishing chances. Whether we're more relaxed or we're just improving, I don't know the reason. But we're starting to finish. Though we still need (to convert) a higher percentage."

Last Thursday, Neubauer, Montiel and Jesus Olmos scored in a 3-0 win over Lake Forest.

No Kelsey Sullivan. No Michelle Parssinen. No Kiersten Horndasch and no Kailey Hinchman. And Mundelein High School's volleyball team still won.

Jen Davis had 6 kills and Brittany Jones had 7 serving aces in Mundelein's 25-14, 25-18 upset of Lake Forest. It was just the third win of the year for the injury-riddled Mustangs.

Gina Withrow had 3 blocks. Brittany Jones had 9 digs while Alyssa Fritz added 7 digs. Megan Barron notched 10 assists.

On Monday, the Mustangs (4-14) made it two in a row. Horndasch returned to the lineup and joined Davis with 4 kills each. Mundelein rallied to post a 20-25, 25-18, 25-15 win over Grant. Setter Barron had 15 assists and also a team-high 5 aces. Fritz had 9 digs while Davis added 8.

Strong play at the top helped the Mustangs finish third in Saturday's Lakes Invitational.

Hanne MacDonald placed third at No. 1 singles. After falling 6-0, 6-4 in the semifinals to Grayslake North's Kelly Poggensee-Wei, MacDonald rebounded to beat Lakes' Jen Shea 6-1, 6-1.

Younger sister Ali MacDonald took second at No. 2 singles. The freshman breezed through 3 matches before losing 6-1, 6-1 to Lakes' Olga Aguilera.

The other Mustang placers were Karlie Alms/Paige Parola (3rd at No. 1 doubles) and Karolina Kucybala/Jenny Ranck (5th at No. 2 doubles).

Earlier, the Mustangs beat Zion-Benton 4-1.

Let's call him a star.

Cameron Rieger vaulted to elite status by placing fourth in Saturday's rugged Palatine Invitational. Rieger's time of 14:28 trailed only York's Steve Sulkin (14:20), York's Jordan Herbert (14:21) and Dundee-Crown's Anthony Manfrin (14:26).

Carmel finished 22nd as a team with 550 points. The other key contributors were Matt DeFiore (96th, 16:05) and Karl Horcher (109th, 16:13).

Led by the 65th-place finish of Hilary Halford (18:55), the Corsairs took 26th in the Palatine Invite with 729 points.