Undefeated Marian Central flexes its muscle vs. St. Edward
It sure doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Marian Central's girls volleyball team is a Class 3A force to be reckoned with this season.
The Hurricanes appear to have all the key ingredients a high school team needs to go far in the postseason.
Just ask St. Edward coach Jaime Dovichi.
"They've got the outside, the setter and the DS from a national championship club team," Dovichi said. "That's all you need on a high school team. It's hard to beat that team."
It sure was just that for Dovichi's Green Wave Wednesday night. Marian, which went 27-11 last year and won a regional championship, defeated St. Edward 25-15, 25-16 in a Suburban Christian Gold match in Elgin that lasted just 35 minutes.
The Hurricanes used the power of junior Emma Hussey (11 kills), the strong defense of senior libero Dena Ott and the precise setting of junior Abby Gilleland (19 assists) to dominate the undersized Green Wave (0-3, 0-1).
Hussey, Ott and Gilleland all played for the Sky High 16U team that won an AAU national title this past summer.
"I didn't tell my kids all that information," Dovichi said. "We've got an uphill battle as it is. We graduated half of our kids and it's going to take us a while to get into a groove. But we'll get there."
St. Edward fell behind 7-2 in Game 1 and even though the Wave battled back to within 3 points twice and to within 15-13 at one point, they could never get over the hump.
With Marian leading 15-13, Ott took over serve for the Hurricanes, who quickly took control and led 21-13 before St. Edward could get the serve back. Hussey had 3 kills in the run and Ott had 2 aces. Game 1 ended when senior middle Shelby Cassesse (7 kills, 3 aces) tipped a shot to an open spot in the Green Wave's defense.
St. Edward hung around a little longer in Game 2 but in the end the Hurricanes just had too much firepower. Leading 15-12, Marian scored 3 quick points to make it 18-12 before a Callie Johnson kill gave the Wave the serve back. But St. Edward couldn't hold it and Marian went on a 5-0 run to make it 23-13 then ended the match on a St. Edward hitting error.
"We were able to keep up better in that game and I was happy with that," said Dovichi, whose team plays Belleville Althoff Friday in the first round of the Crossroads Classic in Effingham.
Johnson had 5 kills and Sarah Norman and Stephanie Igielski added 3 each for the Wave. Katie Ayello led the defense with 16 digs while Kristina Kolodydzk had 13 and Margie Haggenjos 10.