Rosary’s Wegman notches 1,000th kill

With her own K corner, Amelia Wegman’s countdown to 1,000 career kills was easy for everyone in Rosary’s gym to follow Thursday night against Geneva.

Wegman needed 8 kills to become the second Royal to reach the milestone. She finished with exactly eight, the magic one coming like so many of the kills before on a powerful blast that found a hole in the opponent’s defense.

A deafening roar crowd went out from the crowd and the eighth orange K card was added to the “Mia’s quest for 1,000” sign in the corner of the gym. Rosary (24-12) went on to a 25-8, 25-16 victory to make it a memorable senior night for the Royals.

“Tonight was so awesome,” said Wegman, a University of Houston commit. “I have the best team and am surrounded by the best people at Rosary. I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

Wegman closed in on 1,000 with 10 kills Wednesday against Chicago Christian. She joins 2004 graduate Catherine Smale as the only players in school history with 1,000 kills.

Wegman had three of her kills in Game 1 and the other five in the second. It put the Royals ahead 17-14 and while Geneva’s Melissa Hanika immediately answered with a kill, Rosary followed with an 8-1 run to end the match.

Wegman said she only recently found out how close she was to 1,000.

“I didn’t even know that until somebody told me tonight,” Wegman said of the select company with Smale. “And I didn’t even know I was close (to 1,000).”

Geneva (20-10) lost its second straight to a Suburban Christian Conference school after playing Aurora Central last week. The Vikings played short-handed and with heavy hearts but coach KC Johnsen made no excuses.

“Tonight we ran into a team that was pretty pumped up and we were flat,” Johnsen said. “The second game they tried a little harder but give these guys (Rosary) credit. They had a ton of energy on senior night and played us tough.”

Those Rosary seniors received balloons and a live fish before the game started. The fish has been a theme for the team all year after finding a fish in their locker room at the start of the year.

“We just kind of took it and ran,” Royals coach Lisa Kasper said.

The Royals blitzed Geneva with a 4-0 spurt to start the match. Kate Stefanski blasted a kill, Abby Konovodoff fired an ace and Rosary never looked back.