Seneca makes Lisle share IEC title

The Seneca girls volleyball team came into Lisle's house Tuesday and hit the Lions with a double whammy.

With a 26-24, 25-16 win the Irish, not only spoiled the Lions' senior night celebration, but they also knocked Lisle into a first-place tie with Westmont in the final standings of the Interstate Eight Conference.

"We're selfish," said Lisle coach Matt Hrubesky. "We would love to have had the conference title for ourselves. But it's always a productive season when you can get a share of the conference championship."

Throughout the match the Lions (13-19, 8-2) kept digging holes for themselves with a series of errors. They made several dramatic comebacks in Game 1 only to lose a lead and fall short at the end of the game.

In Game 1 the Lions came back to tie the score after trailing by 3, 7 and 4 points in a game that saw the points come in bunches for both teams.

In fact after they tied it at 17-17, Lisle grabbed the lead, increased it to 22-18 and was still leading at 24-23 when Seneca (14-16-2, 6-4) wrested it away for good by scoring the last 3 points.

"We've been a streaky team all year," Hrubesky said. "When they lose the momentum in tight situations a little bit of doubt creeps in and it changes the way they attack the game. But I liked our heart during those comebacks. And we played good defense tonight."

Game 2 was all Seneca. The Irish jumped out to an 8-1 lead, powered by Mattie Watts, who put down 3 kills and a block.

The closest Lisle got was 16-12, but a 3-point run by Seneca pretty much put the game away.

"They hit the ball as well as anyone has against us this year other than Benet," Hrubesky said. "They really pounded the ball. We gave them free balls and they beat the heck out of it."

Watts led Seneca with 7 kills, 3 aces and a block, while Amy Gumm added 6 kills.

"We've lost a lot of games by just a few points," Watts said. "It felt good to stay tough the whole game. Our offense was really strong tonight."

"Our girls executed well," said Seneca coach Karen Raney. "The location of our serves was a key and then we mixed up our passing. We had some great digs and we spread the ball around. As a coach it isn't often that you see your team play well in all phases of the game."

Sara Urban of Lisle expressed the Lions' disappointment.

"We were pumped up tonight because it was senior night and our last home game," Urban said. "We wanted the conference championship to ourselves, but Seneca played really well. Their defense was strong, they hit really hard and didn't make as many mistakes as we made."

Urban and Liz Todd smashed 4 kills apiece for the Lions, and Danielle Fernette had 3 service aces.