Green Wave dominant in sectional win
FORRESTON - Dominant at the net and the service stripe, St. Edward continued its postseason run with a surprisingly easy 25-15, 25-16 defeat of Oregon to win the Class 2A Forreston girls volleyball sectional Thursday night.
The Green Wave (23-17), one step away from a second state appearance in four years, plays at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Byron supersectional against Suburban Catholic Conference rival Immaculate Conception, a team the Wave beat twice during the regular season. IC won the Luther North sectional Thursday, beating Chicago Christian 21-25, 25-16, 25-17.
St. Edward took the offensive with well-placed serves. The Wave used its height to full advantage, as its blocking kept the shorter Hawks from generating much offense.
Katie Yohn led the way with 9 kills, 7 digs, and 10 assists. Kristen Haggenjos had 9 kills and 6 digs, and Rachael Varley had 2 aces to go with 7 assists.
The Wave is coming together at the right time, and its confidence is growing.
"Our serving was really aggressive today," said St. Edward's Katie Ayello. "It was better than usual. But everything was good.
"We're playing a lot better than we did in the (regular) season, because we know we can win."
The first point of the match was an omen of things to come, as Ayello fired an ace. The Wave rolled to a 7-2 lead, then put the game away with an 8-2 run to go up 19-8.
"Everything we wanted to do we did right," said Molly Kelly, who had 3 blocks and 2 kills. "I don't think we had that many errors today. We're just building on our momentum."
The Wave's Tess Berry added 3 kills.
St. Edward started slowly in the second game. Oregon led 8-6 before the Green Wave took control with a 9-2 run. Back-to-back aces by Ayello made it 13-10. Kelly blocked for a point, and an Oregon error made it 15-10.
"We struggle with Game 2," said St. Edward coach Jaime Walton. "We have all year. I don't know if we let down or if the other team comes out fired up. But I'm so happy with the way they do fight back. They don't just give up and say, 'Oh, we'll just go to game 3.' "
Led by Carissa Oelke and Libby Herriot, the Hawks tried to dink the Wave to death. The pair dropped 5 soft ones in as the Hawks built their early lead.
"They started to tip, so that's when they were getting a lot of their points, when they were tipping," Walton said. "I put the fear of God in them if another tip was going to fall."