Rosary beats Aurora Central in straight sets
The atmosphere did not suggest a nonconference girls volleyball match on a school night.
"It still feels like conference to me," Rosary coach Rachel Hartmann said after Rosary turned back longtime league and neighborhood rival Aurora Central Catholic in straight sets Tuesday evening on the Royals' home court in Aurora.
"The big crowd; all the girls are really excited."
Rosary, which incurred its lone first-set deficit on a violation on the opening point of the match, turned the Chargers' 3-point second-set lead around with a dominant 13-3 run late.
Joanna Wedge had her lone kill of the night serve as the match-ender as Rosary won 25-17, 25-19.
Erin Burke had 3 of her match-high 8 kills during the Royals' late-second-game run that reversed a 14-11 deficit into a 24-17 advantage.
"It wasn't just me," Burke said. "It all starts with the passing."
Hartmann credited Rosary setter Grace Konovodoff with directing the Royals' counterattack with a wise floor presence.
"Grace did a nice job of mixing it up," Hartmann said. "She did a great job of delivering the ball in the right place at the right time."
Burke, a sophomore, had the first of her sequence-changing kills to forge the final tie of the second set at 15-15.
Burke then followed an ACC hitting error with back-to-back kills to give Rosary (17-15) an 18-15 lead.
The Royals' Meegan Hart had the last of her match-high 3 blocks on the following point, and ACC never truly recovered in its attempt to force a rubber match.
"No. 15 (Burke) gave us a lot of trouble," ACC coach Dan Drye said.
There were 11 consecutive sideouts midway through the second set before ACC leader Morgan Spencer followed a Rosary double hit with consecutive service points.
But Spencer and her Charger teammates were powerless to stop the Rosary run that ensued after ACC crafted its largest lead of the match.
"I would say that serve-receive was the difference in the match," said Spencer, who led her team with 7 kills. "They had us running around."
Rosary libero Martha Konovodoff broke the only tie of the first set with three straight aces to give the Royals' a 4-1 lead.
ACC (8-18) would never come closer than 2 points the rest of the error-plagued opening set.
"(Martha Konovodoff) has a phenomenal serve," Spencer said. "That's what really got us."
"Against a server like that, we have a lot of trouble," Drye said.
Michaela Ping complemented Burke with 4 kills for Rosary. The Konovodoff sisters combined for 19 digs for the Royals.
Anneka Nilles' 12 digs for ACC were a match high. Andrea Bieritz had 13 assists - four of which went to Natalie Droeske - to orchestrate the Chargers' attack.