Girls volleyball: St. Francis beats Wheaton North to reach sectional final

You don't often see a player pulled off the service line after serving consecutive aces to give her team set point.

But St. Francis' junior Maddy Wilkens didn't mind.

"It happens every once in a while," she said. "I'll give it to my teammate if she can make it better, if it will help the team out. I don't mind letting Kamryn play. That's good."

Kamryn Malloy, sidelined all season after tearing the ACL and MCL in her left knee during the summer, came in to serve with St. Francis leading 24-17 in Game 1 of the Spartans' sectional semifinal against Wheaton North on Tuesday at Geneva.

Malloy finished off the set, and St. Francis finished off the Falcons 25-17, 25-17 to advance to Thursday's sectional title match against host Geneva.

"I remember the first time I came in to serve on Senior Night," Kamryn Malloy said. "I could not hold back the tears. It was so exciting, and now I can feel it. I'm right there. I practice with them and do a little bit each day, and that gives me the motivation to keep going. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Meanwhile, by winning its 30th match for the 31st consecutive year, St. Francis (30-8) moved a step closer to defending its Class 4A championship.

"I think it was not just our tipping, but also playing smart," said Delaney Malloy, who led St. Francis with 9 kills. "We've played teams with big blocks before. We know you can't always just hit the ball as hard as you want into the block.

"Right now I feel like we're on this crazy run," she added. "We're playing amazing. We haven't played like this all season. We're playing together and we bonded so much. I think that's the one thing that is helping us during this run … our experience … our past postseason runs and our bonding as a team."

Alexia Byrnes-Hosey contributed 16 assists and a kill for St. Francis, which also got 17 digs, 4 assists and an ace from libero Becca Fernandez, 6 kills from Cat Wilson, 3 kills and a block from Jessica McCall and 1 kill, 2 blocks and 2 aces from Wilkens.

Wheaton North (30-8) got 4 kills from Ani Clark, 10 assists and 2 aces from Brooke Syswerda, 3 kills and an ace from Emmy Barnhorst, and 2 kills apiece from McKenna Otto and Haley Horner.

"They threw us out of system," said Wheaton North coach Carole Kristensen. "We were a little off-kilter. We weren't able to establish anything. But we accomplished a lot this season. We played spectacular volleyball last week. I couldn't be more proud of them."

St. Francis will meet Geneva (37-1), a 25-21, 25-22 winner over Neuqua Valley earlier Tuesday, in Thursday's sectional title match.

"We came in as the underdogs," Wilkens said. "That was a huge upset for us."