St. Edward moves on; tough loss for Hampshire

St. Edward girls volleyball coach Jaime Dovichi gave her team a game plan Monday night, and the Green Wave went out an executed it.

Now they get to try to do the same thing against a No. 1 seed.

The Green Wave roared back from a 22-19 deficit in Game 3 to upend Sycamore 25-19, 23-25, 25-19 in the first round of the Class 3A Hampshire regional, advancing to play No. 1 seed Kaneland (22-8) in a 5:30 p.m. semifinal on Tuesday.

In Monday's second game, No. 6 seed Hampshire gave No. 3 Genoa-Kingston all it could handle before the Cogs prevailed 23-25, 26-24, 25-18. G-K (26-9) takes on No. 2 Burlington Central (29-6) in Tuesday's second semifinal.

"We had a game plan and they followed it the whole time," said Dovichi of her Green Wave (19-10). "(Sycamore) had a couple key hitters and we set up to defend their attack. We moved some kids around tonight to set up better blocks."

St. Edward broke away from an 11-11 tie in Game 1 to eventually lead 20-15 and cruise to the win, game point coming when Sycamore couldn't handle a smash from Wave junior Megan Barth.

But the Spartans (18-16) bounced back in Game 2 and led wire-to-wire, hanging on after St. Edward closed a 23-18 deficit to 24-23.

Sycamore appeared to be on the way to taking the match when it opened up the 22-19 lead in Game 3. But Wave junior Samantha Boydston put up a block to make it 22-20 and give serve to senior Casey Grdzielewski. A kill from Monique Washington, an ace off the net, a Barth kill, a Sycamore error and another ace later St. Edward was happy to live to play another day.

"We were in a good rotation at the end (of Game 3)," Dovichi said. "I was putting our defense where we needed to block the ball."

Barth led the team effort for St. Edward with 8 kills, 7 digs and 5 aces.

"We didn't give up," Barth said of the Wave's comeback in Game 3. "We kept our heads up and we knew if we kept our serves in we'd keep their serve receive off. (On defense) it was all about reading their hitters and getting out from behind the block."

Senior CeCe Rapp had 8 kills for the Green Wave, while Washington had 9 kills, 8 digs and 8 assists. Grdzielewski had 12 assists, Alyssa Saunders 9 digs and Sarah Madden 7 digs.

G-K d. Hampshire: The Whip-Purs played like a team that had been through the wars of the Fox Valley Conference all season and not like the lowest seeded team in the regional with an 11-21 record.

But in the end, Hampshire ran out of steam in a match the Whips came an eyelash away from winning in two games.

"We had it. Unfortunately things didn't go our way," said Hampshire coach Andrew Lindley. "I'm proud of our girls. We just couldn't close it out (in Game 2) and that momentum carried (G-K) into the third game."

Hampshire bounced back from an early 11-6 deficit in Game 1 to eventually take a 15-11 lead. Hampshire never gave up the advantage, although the Cogs did tie it at 22 before senior Brittany Laffin took over serve and ended the game on neat floater that fell for an ace.

The Whips were down 24-21 in Game 2 but came back to tie it at 24, only to give up serve and face match point on a hitting error. A kill from junior Erika Hansel saved the Cogs, who are coached by former Elgin coach Keith Foster, from early elimination.

"I'm pleased with the way the girls played," Lindley said. "They worked hard and they worked together. It's disappointing to lose but I'm proud of how we fought."

Senior Erin Foss had 4 aces, 9 kills and 6 digs for the Whip-Purs. Laffin added 4 kills and 26 assists, senior Jen Okubo had 11 digs and freshman Maggie Seagren added 5 kills.