St. Francis follows tradition with sectional win

Rosary's girls volleyball team faced two primary obstacles in its Class 3A sectional title game against St. Francis on Thursday:

The Spartans' ability to finish in high-pressure postseason games, and the uniforms on the Spartans' backs.

The two teams split their two regular-season matches, but St. Francis won 25-18, 25-23 at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park.

"They come in with that tradition, and we haven't learned yet how to get past that in big games against them," said Rosary coach Lisa Kasper. "We haven't gotten over that hump yet."

The Spartans' 20th sectional title didn't come easy, for a team looking to carve out its own identity in the vaunted history of coach Peg Kopec's program.

"That pressure is always going to be there, but especially this year we wanted to make this our own team," said Spartans junior Kelsey Robinson, who had a game-high 11 kills. "We don't want to focus on what happened in the past, or what's going to happen down the road.

"We were all ready to play tonight, and we played like we wanted it."

Down 7-6 in the first game, top-seeded St. Francis (32-7) reeled off 5 points behind the serving of Kelsey Vorgert, who had 7 digs on Thursday. Second-seeded Rosary (28-11) was never able to regain the lead from there, but the Royals raised their play in the second game.

"In the first game it felt like we were in control," Kopec said. "In the second game I would say no."

With Rosary hitters Kelly Hogan and Lindsey Weber swinging well and the Royals holding a 22-19 lead, they were poised to force a third game. That's when the Spartans got a kill from Margaret Vonderhaar and a block for a kill from Cassie Rio to tie the game 22-22, then another kill from Kristen Kelsay and an ace from Vorgert.

Rio ended the contest with her sixth kill of the night, advancing the Spartans to a supersectional match Saturday against Joliet Catholic. Kelsay finished the night with 26 assists, and Vonderhaar had 8 kills and 3 blocks.

"We stood together, we were loud, and energetic," Rio said. "I'm very happy with the way we played today. We played together and we played with heart."

Lindsay Juriga had 10 assists for Rosary, Karen Matic had 3 and Emily Weber chipped in 3 kills for Kasper.

"We were in the same position in Game 3 this year at their place - up 22-19, and we lost 25-20," Kasper said. "We were inconsistent in finishing games this season."

"We had a good season, but I can't say we came in here and played the way we're capable of playing."