Spartans soar on home court

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."