St. Edward outlasts IC
It was a night of comebacks and close matches at Immaculate Conception Wednesday, as the St. Edward Green Wave defeated the IC Knights in a Suburban Christian Conference girls volleyball matchup.
The Knights won the first game by a score of 25-22, and St. Edward picked up wins in games 2 and 3 by scores of 28-26 and 25-22 respectively. With the victory, the Green Wave (11-4, 4-0) now hold sole possession of first place in the SCC Gold Division and remain undefeated in conference play.
“It’s very exciting,” St. Edward head coach Jaime Dovichi said of the Green Wave having first place all to themselves for now. “But there are three really good teams, and we all have to play each other again, so that’s not going to be decided until the last match.”
Before the game, IC head coach Jean Field was presented with a commemorative volleyball to honor her 800th career win, which she achieved two weekends ago at the Timothy Christian tournament.
“It’s really nice,” said Field. “It’s been a nice journey to 800, and I’ve worked with a lot of great people. It’s been a nice experience, and unfortunately we didn’t win this one.”
Although all three games were close at the end, the Green Wave struggled out of the gate in each of the first two. After starting the first game with a 6-1 deficit, St. Edward came back to eventually tie the game 8-8 and would not trail by more than 2 points again until the last play of the game.
“Once we started blocking a little bit better and then learning the hitters, we became more aggressive because we were able to run a little bit more of an offense,” said Dovichi. “They were just digging everything we gave at them; their defense was awesome tonight. Once we were able to throw them off a little bit we were able to roll a little bit better.”
Callie Johnson led the Green Wave with 11 kills, Katie Ayello notched a team-high 31 assists, and Allison Kruk led the team with 24 digs.
The Green Wave look to extend their perfect conference record by heading to Marian Central on Wednesday evening.