Palatine outlasts St. Viator
Tuesday's second semifinal of the Class 4A Wheeling girls volleyball regional between No. 6 seed Palatine and No. 11 St. Viator saw both teams notch impressive wins in the first two sets.
When the third set started, the action was highly impressive.
A terrific opening rally finally ended when Pirates' junior defensive specialist Alexis Serna came up with a superb save on a Lions blast. The ball quickly sailed over the net and fell in an empty spot on the floor for the unconventional kill.
Palatine went on to grab a 5-0 lead and never looked back in recording a 25-18, 19-25, 25-19 victory.
The Pirates (22-13) will face No. 3 Carmel (31-5) in Thursday's championship match at 6 p.m.
"I think that first point really set the tone," said coach Dan Gavin, who has steered the Pirates to 20 or more wins for the third time in eight seasons.
That first point also saw some terrific back row play by Pirates sophomore libero Alyssa Kronberg, who finished with 17 digs while Serna had 13.
"Oh my God, Alyssa and Alexa were really fantastic," said senior teammate Meg Angelaccio, who put down 12 kills. "Without them, we can't start our offense so we are grateful for them."
"They've been doing that all season," Gavin said of Kronberg's and Serna's defensive skills. "They've produced a spark in the back row for us, and that creates the offense."
A lot of offense was manufactured by quick sets from sophomore Sydney Christiansen to junior middle hitter Heather Holz, who ended up with 10 kills. Senior Alaian Mikkelssen added 4 kills for the winners.
"Sydney and Heather have a real nice connection and Heather does a nice job putting the ball down," Gavin said. "But again, it's the back row that is setting those up with Sydney and Heather doing a nice job finishing."
Christiansen finished with 36 assists, including six on quick sets to Holz. The final one gave Palatine a 22-17 lead in Set 3.
Grace Fedus put down a kill for St. Viator to cut it to 22-18 but the Pirates were relentless at the end, and wapped up the match with a double block by Holz and Christiansen and two service points from Holz.
Angelaccio had two big kills for sideouts early in the third set which gave the Pirates 7-2 and 8-3 leads.
The Lions clawed back to within 11-10 on a kill by Audrey Nuelle before the Pirates pulled away again to a 16-12 lead, getting a pair of kills from Angelaccio along the way.
"It feels fantastic to get the win," Angelaccio said. "Sydney was spreading the sets out to all of us so we could get good attacks. And that opens up the middle."
In the middle, Holz also collected a pair of blocks while Christiansen had one.
Senior Jessica Lundell gave the Pirates a spark the service line where she was 16-of-16 with 3 aces while Serna and Angelaccio each had an ace.
The Lions' attack was led by junior Alyssa Forbes, who put down 12 kills followed by Gabi Thomas (7), Emily Hayes (7) and Fedus (6).
"Gabi was pretty much unstoppable in the middle," said Lions coach Charlie Curtin of the junior middle hitter who was taking her cues from senior Kaitlin O'Brien (32 assists, 2 aces).
Kasia Sosin was 9-of-9 serving for the Lions (21-15-1) with 10 digs and a kill. Junior libero Ellie Meyer came up with 23 digs.
"The girls fought hard the whole match," Curtin said. "Some things didn't go our way but they battled all the way. I'm proud of the three seniors (Fedus, Sosin and O'Brien). They led us with their energy and execution."