Girls volleyball: St. Viator hangs on in late show against Harvest Christian

Since Charlie Curtin took over as St. Viator's girls volleyball coach in 2006, the Lions have never started a regular-season match as late as they did Thursday night.

With a long three-set underlevel contest before a scheduled 6:30 p.m. varsity start, the first serve was delivered at 7:20 p.m.

"The latest, and probably the hottest," Curtin said. "It was probably 100 degrees in here."

Fortunately for the Lions, they were able to turn up the heat in the final stages of Set 3 and pulled out a 22-25, 25-16, 25-22 triumph over the feisty visiting team of Harvest Christian, also nicknamed the Lions.

It was the 12th third-set that Viator (21-4) has played this fall and the Lions are 8-4 in those decisive games.

"We know we have to play better than in that final set than in the ones we lost," said Lions senior Catherine Hickey, who put down a match-high 10 kills (33-of-33) just two days after rolling up a career-high 26 in another three-set win at Carmel. "We come out with more energy more drive to win the match. We just do what needs to be done."

Hickey gets it done with her attack. She also had matches of 23 and 22 kills this season.

"I don't think about that," she said. "I just try and do what I need to help out the team as much as a I can."

Hickey's kill gave Viator tis biggest lead at 18-11 in Set 3.

But the visitors charged back and got to within 22-21.

But senior Michaela Mueller delivered a perfect set to Kate Nottoli, who put down her fourth kill for a 2-point lead. Hickey and Nottoli then teamed up for a double block that got the hosts to match point.

Moments later, Hickey's 10th kill down the line off Mueller's 111th set and 27th assist ended the match.

"I think we may have underestimated them," said Mueller, who also served 3 aces and had 6 digs. "We came to play but we didn't really finish as strong as we should have in each set. It wasn't pretty but we got the win."

The Lions also got 5 kills apiece from junior Kaylee Liberty and senior Kendall Claffey. As usual, junior libero Carrie Leazer turned in solid back row play and collected 13 digs.

Caroline Carlton, Hickey and Liberty led with 2 blocks apiece while sophomore Vicki Gorny had a big kill to give Viator a 21-16 cushion in the final set.

"It probably wasn't our best match, " Hickey added. "I don't think we played up to our potential but it was a good learning experience for our difficult conference matches coming up the next few weeks."

"We definitely persevere," Curtin said. "We fight to the end all the time. Tonight, we made a lot of unnecessary mistakes but the girls held it together and pulled it out at the end."

Harvest Christian (11-7) is a Class 2A team from Elgin with same nickname as Class 3A Viator (Lions).

The visitors coincidentally started a match at 8:30 p.m. on Monday night against Marian Central (Woodstock) due to middle school matches being played before hand.

Amanda Cassidy, Zoe Pawelek and Madison Pfister each had 6 kills for the visitors, whose offense was set by Kaitlin Murray (21 assists).

Hannah Griffith and Pawelek each served 3 aces while Cassidy had two.

"Overall, I was pretty happy with how we played," said Harvest Christian coach Mike Bui. "Going into this match, we had played a lot of Class 4A and 3A teams the last few weeks. As long as we challenge ourselves, that's all I can ask for. Competing again these schools is just getting us ready for the postseason."

Curtin was impressed by the visiting Lions.

"They surprised me, to be honest," he said. "We got out to a quick lead (7-1 in Set 1 behind 5 straight service points from Mueller) and they battled all the time right to the end. And they had touches on a good majority of balls. Our girls played hard and we came through at the end, but I definitely did not think it was our best match overall."