Girls volleyball: Rosary earns third straight regional crown
The Rosary girls volleyball team hopes the third time is the charm.
The Royals won their third IHSA Class 3A regional title in a row Thursday night by beating host school Aurora Central Catholic in 2 sets, 25-11 and 25-13.
Rosary wants to add a sectional trophy this year, a goal that alluded the Royals in the past two seasons.
"Yes I think it will be (this year). It has been kind of up and down but lately we have been working really hard in practice and been really focused so I think we are on our way up," said the Royals' Meegan Hart.
During the opening minutes of the first set, it looked like ACC (22-16) was not going to make it easy for the Royals (25-12), who take on Fenwick Tuesday at the Montini sectional. The lead seesawed back and forth between the two teams.
ACC's Sydney Audiffred-Zauner tied the game for the third time at 5-5 with the first of her 3 kills.
Maya Sullivan (6 kills) responded with a spike to retake the lead for Rosary, 6-5.
With Rosary leading 12-6 on a Lauren Brummel kill, Charger first-year coach Janelle Prichett called a time out. The break appeared to revitalized the Chargers as they scored the next 2 points on a Katie O'Donnell (5 kills, 4 digs) hit and a Jackie Lillwitz ace to cut into the Royals' lead.
Momentum quickly swung back to Rosary starting with a Madeline Bryan kill. After that point, the Royals went on a 12-3 run to put the game away.
"It's always a good crowd when the two schools play and it's regionals so you get a little bit nervous no matter how many times you've been there," said Rosary coach Rachel Fox. "But once they got in the groove and felt a little confident, they pulled away."
Hart, who had a match-high 10 kills, agreed.
"We had a little bit of nerves at first but we got those out of way right away and just got into it," said the senior.
In the second set, Rosary never trailed. ACC tied it at 1-all on an O'Donnell kill. A block by Julia Gauthier (22 assists) and Hart put the Royals back in front for good, 2-1.
Rosary stalled briefly at the end of the set. A Charger hitting error set match point, 24-11. ACC scored two more times before another Charger hitting error scored the winning point for the Royals.
"We couldn't get a block in front of them and that just really hurt," said Pritchett. "It's tough to play defense with no blocker up in front."
Matha Konovodoff made 6 digs for the Royals while teammate Molly Curly had 5 kills. Both Sarah Elliott and Tressa Cwinski earned 4 assists. Elliott also had 8 digs.
Fenwick defeated the Royals in last year's sectional title game.
"Last year we played them and it didn't go our way," Fox said. "They had a very experienced team last year and that's kind of us this year … so we have a little bit of an upper hand this year."