Rosary routs Aurora Central

There was far more at stake when the neighborhood rivals met in a girls volleyball match for the second time this month.

But the postseason proved no different from their regular-season date as host Rosary never trailed in administering a straight-sets defeat against Aurora Central Catholic Thursday evening.

Behind the serving prowess of Martha Konovodoff and the fearsome hitting of Erin Burke, the Royals dominated their Class 3A regional final in Aurora with a 25-10, 25-8 victory.

Rosary (20-17) advances to meet another former conference rival - Marian Central Catholic - Tuesday at the Rochelle sectional.

ACC had its season end at 11-26.

Leading 7-6 early in the opening set, Rosary ambushed the Chargers with an 18-4 game-ending run.

The Royals then ended all pretense of a third set by scoring 19 of the first 23 points in the clinching game.

"As a team, we came out with a lot of energy," said Burke, whose 9 individual kills were more than the Chargers could muster as a team. "We had it planned to dominate. We are going to keep going. It's not over."

Konovodoff had 3 aces in each of the games; on five other occasions Aurora Central failed to return her service attempt.

"I try to serve aggressively, but it's all about calmness when I go back (to the service line)," said Konovodoff, the Royals' libero who also recorded a match-high 7 digs. "I'm just thinking about what I can do for the team for the next point. I couldn't be happier with how we did. We planned to go there and dominate - and we did."

The Royals' Molly Curly, who augmented Burke with 5 kills, had a 6-point service run to extend the Rosary first-game lead to 17-7.

Brooklyn Mariner sandwiched a kill between two more unreturned Burke offerings, and Meegan Hunt closed out the first set with the Royals' 11th kill of the game.

"We're trying to get that tradition back," said former Rosary great Rachel Hartmann, currently the Royals' coach, of seven straight regional titles that she and sister Christine were part of a decade ago. "We had to work real hard the last two years (with so many underclassmen on varsity)."

The Royals' dominance was so complete that the leading hitter for ACC, Morgan Spencer, was limited to a single kill.

"Rosary is just way better than us," ACC coach Dan Drye conceded. "We couldn't pass at all tonight. From the first serve to the last serve, we couldn't pass at all."

Martney had a match-high 20 assists for Rosary.