Girls soccer
West Chicago
The Wildcats’ impressive season ended last Friday at home with a 2-0 loss to Wheaton North in the Class AA West Chicago Regional Final.

Paige Fowler and Jaime Orewiler scored for the top-seeded Falcons and Hannah Perry earned the shutout in goal.

West Chicago, the No. 8 seed in the Wheaton North sectional, finished 10-8-3.
On May 14, the Wildcats rebounded from an early deficit and defeated No. 10 seed Glenbard South, 2-1.

The Raiders took the lead on Danielle Pipal’s goal at the 13:41 mark, with Taylor Cochran getting the assist.

But about 10 minutes later, freshman Meagan Radloff scored her 10th goal of the season, on an assist from Anna Mercaldo.

Then in the 53rd minute, Mercaldo got her own tally (her second of the year) thanks to an assist from senior Jessica Jones.

Kayla Radloff made nine saves to help preserve the win.

Baseball
West Chicago
The host Wildcats made a lot happen in just seven innings Monday.

In their regular-season finale at Pioneer Park, they got an offensive explosion from Ethan Burau, among others, and a historic effort from pitcher Al Robbins in a 16-11 win over Glenbard South.

Burau doubled, tripled, scored three runs and drove in five while Robbins went 5-1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run and four hits while walking to win his first varsity game for West Chicago (12-15), which won its third straight game.

On Saturday, the Wildcats got doubles from Tyler Christ, Dane Gunderson and Mike Sedjo and solid pitching from Jake Venchus as they overcame three errors to defeat host Plainfield South 6-5.

In this seesaw affair, West Chicago scored in the top of the first inning but the Cougars took a 2-1 lead after the third. Then the Wildcats’ four-run fourth seemed to be enough but the hosts scored twice in the bottom half and then tied it in the fifth. West Chicago got the last run in the sixth and held on.

The previous day, Burau and Josh Yednock both homered and Jordan Long (4-2) went the distance as host West Chicago rallied with a five-run fifth inning to down DuPage Valley Conference foe West Aurora, 6-4.

The Blackhawks had topped the Wildcats, 4-2, last Thursday.

Wheaton Academy
In both teams’ regular-season finale Saturday morning, host Wheaton Academy got solid pitching from Eric Albaugh and offense from just about everybody as it routed Wheaton St. Francis, 10-0, in five innings, ending a three-game losing streak.

That soothed the Warriors’ wounds after they had lost both ends of a doubleheader Friday, 5-1 and 9-0, at Private School League foe Illiana Christian (27-3). Last Thursday, Wheaton Academy dropped a 6-2 decision at Montini.

Wheaton Academy (11-12-1), the No. 9 seed in the Class 3A Nazareth Academy Sectional, has its playoff opener Thursday against No. 8 seed Ridgewood.

Boys volleyball
West Chicago
The 13th-seeded Wildcats opened their postseason Monday with a thrilling 26-24, 15-25, 25-20 victory over No. 20 seed Streamwood in the first match of the West Chicago Regional.

West Chicago (11-21) advanced to Tuesday’s regional semifinals against No. 4 seed Conant.

Andrew Oppermann led the Wildcat attack with 12 kills and two blocks while fellow seniors Brendon Jones (ace) and John Malandruccolo (four blocks) had eight and seven kills, respectively.

All-DuPage Valley Conference selection Ryan Krage collected an impressive 21 digs and fellow junior Steven Romanelli amassed 17 assists, seven digs and an ace. Justin Leduc chipped in an ace and seven digs.

Despite five kills from Jones and Mike Wall (ace), the host Wildcats fell to DVC rival Glenbard North, 25-14, 25-22, in their regular-season finale May 15.

Leduc and Jeff Hlinka each dished out six assists for West Chicago (3-11 DVC). Krage added two digs.

Wheaton Academy
In the opening match of the Rolling Meadows Regional Monday, the Warriors defeated a familiar opponent, St. Edward, 25-18, 25-18.

It was Wheaton Academy’s third sweep of the Green Wave this season.

That was also a far cry from the Warriors’ regular-season finale last Friday, falling to state-ranked Wheaton St. Francis, 25-21, 25-14, which got 14 kills from Joey Murnane and eight from Bob Vonderhaar.

No. 15 seed Wheaton Academy faced the Spartans (32-3), the No. 2 seed in their own sectional, again Tuesday night in the regional semifinals.