February 10, 2025
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High school volleyball: Prairie Ridge hands McHenry 1st loss

McHENRY — Prairie Ridge volleyball wasn’t happy with a season-opening loss to Cary-Grove last week. The Wolves set about making some adjustments after the loss. “We’ve been working really hard in practice, especially after Cary,” senior outside hitter Erin McNeil said. “We made serious changes and it obviously shows on the court.” It showed in Prairie Ridge’s 25-15, 25-17 win over McHenry on Tuesday at McHenry East.

By Sean Hammond
McNeil (pictured, right) led the way with seven kills, but the Wolves (2-1, 2-1 Fox Valley Conference) shared the ball nicely. Hannah Baudin, Emily Baudin and Jayden Otto each had five kills. Trinity Sheridan added another four kills. It was a well-rounded attack. “That really helped our offense,” coach Stefanie Otto said. “It helped that we had a lot better serve-receive. We only had two serve-receive errors and we were pretty much in system the whole game.” Prairie Ridge’s largest deficit in the match was 5-2 to start the first set. The Wolves battled back to take an 8-7 lead and won the set by 10. “That was one of our goals to stay strong throughout the match and I feel like we executed it well,” McNeil said. Stefanie Otto was proud of the way the 6-foot-2 McNeil adjusted during the game. “She did a really nice job of listening to what we said was open and going out and getting her attacks where they needed to be to score,” Otto said.

McNeil (pictured, right) led the way with seven kills, but the Wolves (2-1, 2-1 Fox Valley Conference) shared the ball nicely. Hannah Baudin, Emily Baudin and Jayden Otto each had five kills. Trinity Sheridan added another four kills. It was a well-rounded attack. “That really helped our offense,” coach Stefanie Otto said. “It helped that we had a lot better serve-receive. We only had two serve-receive errors and we were pretty much in system the whole game.” Prairie Ridge’s largest deficit in the match was 5-2 to start the first set. The Wolves battled back to take an 8-7 lead and won the set by 10. “That was one of our goals to stay strong throughout the match and I feel like we executed it well,” McNeil said. Stefanie Otto was proud of the way the 6-foot-2 McNeil adjusted during the game. “She did a really nice job of listening to what we said was open and going out and getting her attacks where they needed to be to score,” Otto said. (Sarah Nader)

McNeil (pictured, right) led the way with seven kills, but the Wolves (2-1, 2-1 Fox Valley Conference) shared the ball nicely. Hannah Baudin, Emily Baudin and Jayden Otto each had five kills. Trinity Sheridan added another four kills. It was a well-rounded attack. “That really helped our offense,” coach Stefanie Otto said. “It helped that we had a lot better serve-receive. We only had two serve-receive errors and we were pretty much in system the whole game.” Prairie Ridge’s largest deficit in the match was 5-2 to start the first set. The Wolves battled back to take an 8-7 lead and won the set by 10. “That was one of our goals to stay strong throughout the match and I feel like we executed it well,” McNeil said. Stefanie Otto was proud of the way the 6-foot-2 McNeil adjusted during the game. “She did a really nice job of listening to what we said was open and going out and getting her attacks where they needed to be to score,” Otto said.

McNeil (pictured, right) led the way with seven kills, but the Wolves (2-1, 2-1 Fox Valley Conference) shared the ball nicely. Hannah Baudin, Emily Baudin and Jayden Otto each had five kills. Trinity Sheridan added another four kills. It was a well-rounded attack. “That really helped our offense,” coach Stefanie Otto said. “It helped that we had a lot better serve-receive. We only had two serve-receive errors and we were pretty much in system the whole game.” Prairie Ridge’s largest deficit in the match was 5-2 to start the first set. The Wolves battled back to take an 8-7 lead and won the set by 10. “That was one of our goals to stay strong throughout the match and I feel like we executed it well,” McNeil said. Stefanie Otto was proud of the way the 6-foot-2 McNeil adjusted during the game. “She did a really nice job of listening to what we said was open and going out and getting her attacks where they needed to be to score,” Otto said. (Sarah Nader)

McHenry (2-1, 2-1 FVC) suffered its first loss after picking up a pair of wins last week over Crystal Lake South and Cary-Grove. Coach Lexi Algrim was not happy with her team’s ball control. “I’ve never seen us pass like that as a team,” Algrim said. “I’ve never seen us play defense like that as a team. It was just lazy and we didn’t communicate very well.” Algrim felt her team was playing not to lose, especially after the Wolves took control early. “They just took us out of our game completely,” Algrim said. “Props to PR, they came out and wanted it more than us.”

McHenry (2-1, 2-1 FVC) suffered its first loss after picking up a pair of wins last week over Crystal Lake South and Cary-Grove. Coach Lexi Algrim was not happy with her team’s ball control. “I’ve never seen us pass like that as a team,” Algrim said. “I’ve never seen us play defense like that as a team. It was just lazy and we didn’t communicate very well.” Algrim felt her team was playing not to lose, especially after the Wolves took control early. “They just took us out of our game completely,” Algrim said. “Props to PR, they came out and wanted it more than us.” (Sarah Nader)

One of the biggest focuses for Prairie Ridge since the loss to C-G was defense. Mackenzie Garis (pictured above) had 10 digs in the match for the Wolves, along with three aces. “Our defense was doing much better,” Garis said. “Our blocks were really good. I thought a lot of people stepped up when we needed them to step up.” Stefanie Otto said there was a lot of discussion last week, and on Tuesday the Wolves put forth a better team effort. “We redirected our focus a little bit in practice,” she said. “I liked how aggressive we were serving. That was really important to help us and then just better ball control than what we had the first two matches that we played this season — just reading the court and playing more as a unit, getting confident and comfortable.”

One of the biggest focuses for Prairie Ridge since the loss to C-G was defense. Mackenzie Garis (pictured above) had 10 digs in the match for the Wolves, along with three aces. “Our defense was doing much better,” Garis said. “Our blocks were really good. I thought a lot of people stepped up when we needed them to step up.” Stefanie Otto said there was a lot of discussion last week, and on Tuesday the Wolves put forth a better team effort. “We redirected our focus a little bit in practice,” she said. “I liked how aggressive we were serving. That was really important to help us and then just better ball control than what we had the first two matches that we played this season — just reading the court and playing more as a unit, getting confident and comfortable.” (Sarah Nader)

STAR OF THE GAME Erin McNeil, Prairie Ridge, Senior, OH McNeil led the Wolves’ balanced offensive attack with seven kills. THE NUMBER 4: Prairie Ridge had four different players with at least five kills (Hannah Baudin, Erin McNeil, Emily Baudin and Jayden Otto). AND ANOTHER THING … In addition to her five kills, Jayden Otto also led the way with 21 assists for the Wolves. Coach Stefanie Otto said the win was “a good team effort for sure.”

STAR OF THE GAME Erin McNeil, Prairie Ridge, Senior, OH McNeil led the Wolves’ balanced offensive attack with seven kills. THE NUMBER 4: Prairie Ridge had four different players with at least five kills (Hannah Baudin, Erin McNeil, Emily Baudin and Jayden Otto). AND ANOTHER THING … In addition to her five kills, Jayden Otto also led the way with 21 assists for the Wolves. Coach Stefanie Otto said the win was “a good team effort for sure.” (Sarah Nader)

Prairie Ridge Preps
Sean Hammond

Sean Hammond

Sean is the Chicago Bears beat reporter for the Shaw Local News Network. He has covered the Bears since 2020. Prior to writing about the Bears, he covered high school sports for the Northwest Herald and contributed to Friday Night Drive. Sean joined Shaw Media in 2016.