Richards Boots Oak Lawn in Soccer Regional

Richards scored twice in the second half to beat Oak Lawn 3-1 Friday in 3A girls soccer regional play at the Oak Lawn Spartan Athletic Complex.

Richards struck first with a goal from senior Jasmin Figueroa, who was the recipient of an assist from senior Krista Herrera. Oak Lawn, however, battled back and tied the score at 1-all when senior Michaela Sheeran scored on an assist from sophomore Britney Samson.

Richards opened it up in the second half. With 30:23 to play in the game, Richards sophomore Brittany Wagner scored off a free kick that hit the goal sidebar. The ball bounced right to Wagner, and she found the net with the Oak Lawn defense scrambling to recover.

Despite a couple of golden scoring chances, Oak Lawn was unable to find the back of the net in the second half. Richards coach Marie Strelka credited her defense.

“Oak Lawn has some very good forwards, so we had Jasmine Serrano on the outside and Jocelyn Wayer, and we just had them mark with their fast forwards and they did a great job of covering,” Strelka said. “And then we always have Tricia (Tuxford), who’s our sweeper. Anything that gets past those girls, Tricia is right on top of it.”

Figueroa scored her second goal of the day with 13 seconds to play on a breakaway past the Oak Lawn goalkeeper.

Richards moves on to play top-seeded Sandburg on Wednesday at Sandburg.

“Sandburg is a very tough team,” Strelka said. “We come from a population of 1,700 and theirs is around 4,000, so our programs are very different, but we’re going to go out and we’re going to play our hardest and see what happens. It’s not necessarily who the best team is, it’s who the best team is that day.”

Friday’s loss ended Oak Lawn’s season.

“I have 11 seniors, so it’s going to be hard losing them,” Oak Lawn coach Karyn Horn said. “We definitely had some spots we could have improved on, but for the most part, I’m proud of the way they played.

“They played hard today. No matter what, they played hard.”

Richards and Oak Lawn Volleyball Teams Refocus

In the wake of their , the Oak Lawn and Richards boys volleyball teams are winding down their conference schedules before the playoffs begin.

Richards is hosting its own tournament this weekend. Senior setter Nadeem Razick hopes the Bulldogs will use the tournament as a final tune-up before the playoffs begin against Brother Rice in a semifinal match at the Lincoln-Way East Regional on May 24.

“We have our tournament this weekend,” Razick said. “We’re going to play a lot of good teams. We just have to try to get as many reps as we can.”

Razick has his sights set on a good playoff run. “We’re hoping to win a regional, and—who knows?—maybe we can go further.”

Oak Lawn opens the playoffs on May 23 in a quarterfinal match against Corliss in the Lincoln-Way East Regional. If the Spartans win two matches, they could get another shot at Richards, if the Bulldogs win their semifinal match. However, Oak Lawn coach Ryan Skendzel isn’t even looking past his team’s final South Suburban Conference match at Reavis this Thursday.

“We still got Reavis,” Skendzel said. “We’re rivals with Reavis and we beat them the first time around, so it’s going to be a tough one. Then we’ll focus on (the playoffs) after.”

Spartans Girls Track Team 5th in Conference

In Thursday’s South Suburban Red Conference meet, Oak Lawn’s girls track team placed fifth. Junior Valerie Georgelos led the way with a second-place finish in the pole vault. The Spartans also received six third-place finishes—from junior Gina Baldea (100-meter high hurdles, 300-meter low hurdles), junior Kasia Szczurek (3200-meter run, 1600-meter run), freshman Victoria Jones (200-meter dash) and senior Kari Colesby (pole vault).

Public vs. Catholic Question

In this column from the SouthtownStar, sportswriter Pat Disabato questions the public schools that choose not to play Catholic League Blue teams in baseball. What do you think?