Timothy Christian defeats Westmont

A year ago Timothy Christian fell just short of the second girls volleyball sectional title in program history.

This time around, the Trojans weren't going to be denied.

Notching its third win over Westmont this fall, Timothy Christian captured the Class 2A Guerin sectional championship with a 25-20, 25-19 victory on Thursday night.

"It's absolutely amazing," said junior Kendra Teune, who ended the match with a kill. "Losing last year (to Montini in Class 3A) was the hardest, most disappointing thing I've ever experienced. To come back with this team is phenomenal. This year, because of losing last year, we have such great fight in us."

The Trojans, who improved to 35-4 after posting a mark of 36-3 in 2014, advance to Saturday's Beecher supersectional with a chance to secure their first state berth. They will play Watseka, which upended Wilmington in three games.

"It's kind of been our motto this week, we want to be one of one," Timothy Christian coach Scott Piersma said. "We would be the only team to go downstate if we can do that Saturday. We are one of two right now and we can be one of one."

After dropping the first game to Latin in the sectional semifinal on Tuesday, the Trojans jumped out to leads in each of the games. They led by as much as 7 points in both before the Sentinels fought back.

"It was nice to start off strong," said senior setter Dani Van Laten, who also contributed 4 kills and 4 aces to go along with her passing. "On Tuesday we started down a little bit. Our serving was definitely good this match and that helped."

Teune led the way with 8 kills and Ava Venema added 5 kills and a block in Game 2.

"Getting up was a good thing because against Latin we struggled to get going," Piersma said. "It was good to see us get a lead in the beginning. We let them back in both games, we had a few lapses defensively, but once we fixed that, we were able to close out both games."

Westmont wrapped up the 2015 campaign with a 20-16 record. Sophomore Sydney Pardy and senior Hailey Pardy both topped the Sentinels with 11 kills.

"We played them two other times (in the regular season) and in three of those four sets, we were pretty competitive with them," Westmont coach Jennifer Gliwa Bell said. "(Van Laten) got us into trouble in terms of her serving. But Sydney did a great job and Maddy Lubeck did a nice job distributing the ball and Hailey had some big swings.

"This year we had a tendency to dig a hole and then fight back and that's a little rough. It is always a good matchup with Timothy, it's a good rivalry."