Spartans find renewed vigor

After losing a lackluster first game, reigning Class AA girls volleyball champion St. Francis went back to its championship form in the final two games to beat St. Edward 22-25, 25-14, 25-8 Wednesday night in Wheaton.

In the first game the Spartans (25-3, 10-2 Suburban Catholic Conference) jumped out to a 13-5 lead and looked as if they would run away with it.

The Green Wave had other ideas. That Spartans lead evaporated during a 10-2 Green Wave run midway through the first game. St. Edward grabbed its first lead at 20-19 behind the serving of Margie Haggenjos and Katie Yohn. The Green Wave never gave up that lead as Kristen Haggenjos had one of her match-high 16 kills to end the first game.

"As a team, our momentum went away after our initial burst," St. Francis' Meghan Matusiak said. "We didn't have that intensity we had when we started. It was senior night and maybe we lost focus a little."

The second and third games started much like the first game, but this time the Spartans were able to finish.

St. Francis scored the second game's first 5 points and jumped out to a 12-5 lead. The Green Wave (11-17, 6-6) was not able to get any closer than the 12-7 deficit as the Spartans used a 9-3 spurt to put the second game out of reach.

"We had all the momentum going into the second game," St. Edward coach Jamie Walton said. "We struck when we needed to and then after the first game it was like we were waiting to see what was going to happen instead of making something happen. When they had the letdown in the first game, we capitalized. There wasn't a letdown in the final two games."

The decisive third game was all Spartans as St. Francis could do no wrong. The Spartans got out of the gates quickly, scoring the game's first 6 points, and before a blink of an eye the score ballooned to 17-4. The Green Wave was able to string together consecutive points only two times in the third game as the Spartans had 5 block kills.

"We needed to go back to the basics after that first game," St. Francis coach Peg Kopec said. "We needed to block and pass, that was all. We worked on blocking a lot this week and we finally were able to do that in the final two games."

Megan Barnicle had a team-high 9 kills and Michelle Kocker pitched in with a match-high 25 assists in the win.