Immaculate Conception stops Wheaton Academy

Immaculate Conception waited five long days to get back on its court, and a three-set freshman match made the wait even longer.

Then the Knights made the wait worth it.

The Knights bounced back from a tough three-set loss to St. Edward last Wednesday to beat Wheaton Academy 25-22, 25-15 on Monday in Elmhurst.

IC (11-6, 4-1 Suburban Christian Conference Gold), which came into the match tied with Wheaton Academy for second place in conference, remained a game behind St. Edward.

“I feel like we really needed this, especially after last week,” Knights senior Kellyanne Remy said.

IC used early point runs in each set to forge ahead, and unlike the St. Edward match kept its leads intact.

In the first set a 9-0 Knights run turned a 6-3 Wheaton Academy lead into a 12-6 IC advantage. Kimmy Martino and Juliette Ambrogi each had a pair of kills in the run and Emily Hartnett one. Wheaton Academy eventually came back to within 19-16 on one of Bianca Cifaldi’s 10 kills, but Hartnett answered with a kill for IC.

Three IC errors had the margin at 23-21, but two Wheaton Academy service errors prevented a further comeback.

“We finished strong tonight,” Remy said. “We stayed together for almost the entire match and kept up our intensity.”

In the second set a 6-1 IC run pushed the Knights ahead 13-8. Hartnett and Martino served aces and Delaney D’Amore a tip kill.

The Knights showed good balance at the net, with Hartnett coming up with 6 kills, Martino 4 kills and 3 blocks and D’Amore 4 kills. Another D’Amore tip kill gave IC match point.

“I think the St. Edward match was a really good wake-up call for us,” IC coach Jean Field said, “to not assume anything but to play all the way through and play to the end. We’re pretty balanced and we have depth sitting on the bench that for most teams would be playing.”

Cifaldi had 7 kills for Wheaton Academy in the first set, but the Knights did a better job digging out the Warriors’ big hitter as the match progressed. Libero Kathleen Ryan dug out 9 balls, Liz Martino had 8 digs and D’Amore 7.

“No. 17 (Cifaldi) is a real nice player for them,” Field said, “but what we’ve come against like at the St. Viator tournament over the weekend is everybody has a big hitter like that. At the beginning you get intimidated by that but eventually you get used to it and you know you can dig them. The big thing is to not get rattled.”

Sydney Vischer had 5 kills and Jennifer Schmitz 16 assists for Wheaton Academy (12-9, 3-2), which was coming off a 1-4 finish at the Wheaton Classic.

“I feel like we had real good energy as far as scrappiness. I just thought we were playing catch-up all night,” Wheaton Academy coach D.A. Nichols said. “Our problem right now is we have too many bad passes.

“We need the practice time right now. We’ve had three weekends in a row where we’ve been going with tournaments. We’re ready for a break.”