Marian Central turns away Grayslake C.

Trailing Marian Central 18-4 in game 1 of their sectional semifinal matchup, it seemed like Grayslake Central would soon be warming up the bus. But the Rams suddenly found their stride, and their serve. They battled back to 23-21.

Unfortunately for the Rams, the comeback fell short, and Marian Central won game 2 for a 25-21, 25-16 victory in the Class 3A Marian Central sectional.

The Hurricanes (31-6) move on to face Hampshire, a 27-25, 25-19 winner against Crystal Lake Central in the second semifinal, on Thursday at 7 p.m. for the title.

Tory Dohm led Grayslake (17-17) with 6 kills and 5 blocks. Anna Dlesk added 4 kills and Shannon Curtis had 3. Kat Dickson had 3 blocks as the Rams were able to stuff the middle consistently.

The Rams knew they couldn't match up with the Hurricanes size-wise, so they tried to make up the difference with aggressive serving.

"We know Marian is a tough team, but if we get them out-of-system, we can at least slow them down," said Rams coach Jason Janczak. "So that was kind of our plan, to serve aggressively and see if we could rattle them just a little bit."

They succeeded, for awhile.

A Marian service error started a 7-point Rams' run. Brittany Gibson then stepped to the line and served 6 points in a row. The Hurricanes finally broke the string, but a Curtis got a kill and then served 3 more points, including an ace, to make it 19-15.

"We all had the same thing in mind: no letups," said Dohm. "We needed to push it."

It was a bittersweet end to the season for Grayslake.

"We were happy just to be here," said Janczak. "We haven't won a regional in 16 years. But I think the six on the floor wanted just a little bit more."

Marian was just glad to survive and fight another day.

"We knew we had to get out of that one rally," said Kaitlin Thompson, who led Marian with 9 kills. "They had good serves, and we were falling apart in our serve-receive. We came together as a team and pulled it out."