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Net gain for Aurora Christian at Montini

Fielding a varsity volleyball team with just two seniors, Montini coach Shafeeqa Small isn't quite sure what group she's getting on a given night.

And Wednesday wasn't the Broncos' night.

Aurora Christian took advantage, beating Montini 25-16, 25-19 in Lombard.

The loss snapped Montini's modest three-match winning streak.

"You have some youth and inexperience, partnered together with limited leadership and returning players. That makes it hard as a coach to know what team is showing up week-to-week," Small said. "We were not ourselves tonight."

Kristin Burger, one of Montini's two seniors, led the Broncos (3-4, 1-1 Suburban Christian Conference) on Wednesday with 3 kills and 11 digs. A junior-dominant team also plays two freshmen. One of them, 6-foot Joyce Balash, put down 2 blocks.

Small insists this group is ahead of last year's schedule, when Montini went 14-15 in Small's first season in Lombard.

"I feel like where we are right now is definitely loads ahead of where we were last season at this time," Small said. "I still feel pretty confident about our team being able to build off of this."

Aurora Christian (6-4, 1-1) took control of both games midway through. With the game one score knotted at 15-15, the Eagles rolled off the next 9 points unanswered. Hayley Day, Taylor Knauf, Nilsa Carril and Emily Neely all had kills for Aurora Christian during that stretch.

"If we could get serve receive and keep their serve receive," Aurora Christian coach Andrew Palmer said of Montini, "they really had only a couple options. We wanted to take away that big powerful middle they have. We've been working hard at picking up our defense. We were really hustling out there."

A Montini service error started the run and 2 Broncos hitting errors contributed to their demise.

"We really struggled with making our adjustments with our blockers," Small said. "I think that's really what led to our demise because (libero) Molly (Lucas) played some solid defense. She got to a lot of balls. Us not making adjustments kind of threw out coverage off. Aurora Christian was a very scrappy team."

In the second game a Burger kill had Montini trailing just 16-15. But Aurora Christian tallied 7 of its next 8 points courtesy of Broncos errors to take a commanding 24-18 advantage.

"We never got into an offensive rhythm," Small said. "They're a conference team so we'll see them again. I feel like they still haven't seen Montini's team. I guess that's the silver lining in a gray cloud."

Lucas had 11 digs and 2 kills for Montini. Shannon Norris and Carril each put down 5 kills for Aurora Christian, Norris also contributing 10 digs. Courtney Pendry also had 10 digs.

"The production of our middles is something we've been working on, and we struggled at a little bit earlier in the season," Palmer said. "We really want to spread the ball around."