Boyd, St. Charles E. denies Wolves
DeKALB -- Mattie Boyd gave Prairie Ridge a reality check after slamming down a kill to put the Saints at match point.
Prairie Ridge held on to the dream of a third-straight chance at going downstate and rallied off 6 straight points in Monday night's Class 4A DeKalb supersectional to come back to 24-20. Boyd then made one thing clear for the Wolves -- reality.
The senior nailed her 10th kill, in the exact same spot as the first 9, to give the Saints (28-12) a 25-16, 16-25, 25-20 victory over Prairie Ridge (22-17). The victory propels East into the state finals for the first time since they won the state title in 2001.
The Saints will face Mother McAuley in the first semifinal at 6:30 p.m. on Friday at Redbird Arena in Normal.
"I wanted the ball so bad," said Boyd, who transferred from Larkin two years ago and is committed to DePaul. "I sounded like a ballhog out there calling for the ball. I played with these girls before. I knew if I kept hitting the same spot, if I hit hard enough, they weren't going to dig it out."
The Saints broke open a 14-13 advantage and went up 23-13 in the final game. The Wolves had 5 hitting errors during the stretch.
"Reality kind of sunk in," Prairie Ridge middle blocker Ashley Doherty said. "Weather we won or we lost, we needed to keep pushing."
When Prairie Ridge was communicating well, it was tough to stop. Doherty (15 kills, 4 blocks, 2 aces) had several runs in the game, the last when she scored 3 of the Wolves' final 6 points of the match.
Earlier in Game 3, Doherty got a kill and a pair of aces to bring Prairie Ridge back to within 13-10. She also had similar runs in both Games 1 and 2.
"Ashley will be a tough loss," Prairie Ridge coach Stefanie Otto said of replacing Doherty. "She's a leader and she's a tough blocker."
The Saints' offense was also tough to stop when the defense was on its game. Jacqui Seidel led East with 14 digs, Alex Coello finished with 12, Julia Marks had 10 and Caroline Niski and Laura Homann (27 assists) finished with 8 apiece for East, which finished with 22 right-side digs.
"(The offense) can't do well unless they have the backcourt," Saints' coach Jennie Kull said. "Alex was playing with a heart of gold and Julia made some big digs."
The Wolves' defense was led by 14 digs from libero Kari Rankin and Sondra Prays finished with 12 kills, including 4 in the Wolves' 25-16 victory in Game 2.
Haley Streich (7 kills) finished with 5 kills in the Saints Game 1 victory and Boyd added 6 kills in the Game 2 loss.
"Mattie was blocking the ball," Homann said. "All of the hitters were just on. It makes it easier that the passing was on."
St. Francis d. Joliet Catholic: There was no place like home for the St. Francis girls volleyball team Monday night.
Before a sold-out crowd of 1,100, the Spartans punched yet another ticket to state by sweeping Joliet Catholic 25-19, 25-22 in the Class 3A St. Francis supersectional in Wheaton.
St. Francis sold out its allotment of 500 tickets in a mere 10 minutes Friday. It took the Spartans (37-3) less than an hour to win the match in a comfortable display on their home court.
"We know how to play here," St. Francis sophomore outside hitter Kelsey Robinson said after drilling a match-high 9 kills.
"I have to say thanks to our fans," said Spartans senior setter Michelle Kocher, whose club meets Sycamore in the 4:30 p.m. semifinal Friday at Redbird Arena in Normal. "They did a lot for us. At the beginning of the game we were just very pumped. We had the momentum. Our fans had our backs."
By contrast, Joliet Catholic (34-6) looked very uncomfortable. The Angels made 21 errors, including 12 in the first game playing in front of a sea of blue-clad cheering St. Francis students.
St. Francis middle hitter Megan Barnicle set the tone for the night when she blocked Joliet Catholic's Kelly Murphy twice in three rallies to give the Spartans a 5-2 lead in the opener.
"We were cheating to her and I guess it just worked," Barnicle said.
St. Francis built cushions of 8-3, 12-4, 16-6, 18-10 and 20-11 playing cleanly against the error-prone Angels.
In Game 2, Joliet Catholic held a 16-14 edge, but the Spartans responded with a 5-0 run on a missed serve, a Barnicle kill, back-to-back kills by Robinson and a Kocher block. They wrapped it the match when the Angels bumped the ball out of bounds.
St. Francis coach Peg Kopec called her team's blocking the key, but she was also pleased with its serving.
"I thought we did a lot of things right," Kopec said.
It was the second match back for Murphy, who is still recovering from a high sprain to her right ankle. She clearly wasn't jumping as high as normal, though she still managed a team-high 8 kills. The top-ranked senior in the nation estimated herself to be at "85 percent."
Joliet Catholic coach Christine Scheibe discounted the influence of St. Francis playing on its homecourt and Murphy's injury.
"Kelly was closer to a 100 percent tonight than she's been in three weeks so I just don't think that was it," Scheibe said. "I think we just made too many errors."