Young Wave making progress
Senior Night festivities don't take long when a team has but two seniors to honor, a la the St. Edward girls volleyball team.
Just two members of the Green Wave -- outside hitter Taylor Barone and defensive specialist Laura Wilson -- are due to graduate. The other 10 players on the 2007 roster are juniors, which partially explained St. Edward's up-and-down season to this point.
However, with the state playoffs looming, Barone, Wilson and the junior-laden Wave gave their raucous fans a glimpse of what a young team looks like as it molds into form late in the regular season.
After dropping a tight first game to Montini in Elgin Monday night, St. Edward roared back behind 18 kills from unstoppable junior outside hitter Kristen Haggenjos, 13 kills and 21 assists from junior setter Katie Yohn and 7 kills by Barone to win 20-25, 25-15, 25-18 in a Suburban Catholic Conference match.
"This is what I've been waiting for all year," said fourth-year St. Edward coach Jaime Walton, who recorded her 100th career victory at the Minooka tournament over the weekend. "We controlled the ball. We used the free balls that they gave us. We kept the momentum on our side and we were in control."
Montini (15-16-2, 5-8) started well. Coming out of a timeout late in Game 1, the Broncos gave up a booming spike to Barone that trimmed their lead to 22-20. But a spike kill by Stephanie Viane followed by an ace from setter Alyssa Holum set up Danielle Frascasso's game-winning block kill of a Haggenjos swing.
It was one of the few times the entire match that Haggenjos was thwarted.
"We couldn't get our right side block up, which made it hard on the back row," Frascasso said. "Some of our back row people got it up, but we needed a big block and that was hard for us."
Yohn took over Game 2. She spiked winners that gave the Wave leads of 8-3 and 10-3, then blasted back to back kills to increase the lead to 15-5 as St. Edward evened the match with ease.
St. Edward hitters continued to fire on the Broncos in machine-gun fashion in Game 3, pounding down hit after hit after hit. The Green Wave took a 1-0 lead on a frozen rope by Haggenjos, who killed 7 balls in Game 3 alone.
"They're kind of short, so I wasn't afraid to swing over their block," Haggenjos said. "I had some great sets from my setters and the coaches were telling us where to put it. It turned out good; We got lots and lots of kills from everybody." That was precisely the problem from Montini's perspective.
"We were struggling to close our block on the outside," said Montini coach Sara Lhotka. "Whenever we did get hands on her we were able to stay in the point, but she puts the ball away and we couldn't adjust on our side."
Rosary d. Aurora Central Catholic 25-3, 25-8:ŒThe Royals (27-5, 13-0) clinched the Suburban Catholic Conference title for the first time since 2004. Kylie Schalz nailed down 7 kills and 5 blocks and Christine Hartmann served 6 aces.
Men's soccer
Aurora 1, Lawrence 0: Chase Corricelli scored the only goal of the game 3:45 into overtime as the Spartans (9-3-3) won in Appleton.
Men's golf
NAC Tournament: After the first day of play at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, Aurora stands in first place with a score of 330. Mark Frantzen led the Spartans with a score of 81 and Shane Roland shot a 83.