Class 2A volleyball preview: St. Ed's vs. Freeburg
Teams: St. Edward (23-17) vs. Freeburg (34-5)
When: 12:30 p.m. today at Redbird Arena
Coaches: St. Edward's Jaime Walton is 123-69-2 in her fifth season; Freeburg's Lesa Bolt is 57-18 in her second season.
How they got here: St. Edward won its own regional, defeating Aurora Christian and Harvard, then won the Forreston sectional by defeating Winnebago and Oregon. The Green Wave then advanced to the Final Four with a 25-22, 25-23 win over Immaculate Conception in the Byron supersectional. Freeburg won the Nashville regional with wins over Nashville and Carlyle, then beat Murphysboro and Breese Central to win the Sparta sectional. The Midgets then downed Newton 25-12, 23-25, 25-16 in the Vandalia supersectional to advance to the Final Four.
Outlook: Records mean little at this point of the season but St. Edward is hoping Freeburg will question the Green Wave's place in the Final Four with a 23-17 mark. "People look at our record and the fact we don't have any club players and they wonder how we can be here," said St. Edward senior outside Kristen Haggenjos, a Loyola recruit, after the Wave's practice at Redbird on Thursday. "We have great coaching and great teamwork. This team is incredibly close. We're pretty much at our peak right now." The Green Wave haven't lost a game since Game 2 of the regional championship against Harvard. Wave coach Jaime Walton brought her first St. Edward team to a fourth-place finish in her first season at St. Edward (2004) and is hoping that experience will give her a coaching advantage today, as well as relax her players somewhat. "The arena doesn't look so big to me this time and these girls are so down to earth that it's just another game to them," Walton said Thursday. "There was so much pressure last time. I felt a ton of pressure and I think this time the girls have relaxed me. They all get along so well. They just love to compete and that's what they're here to do - compete and play hard. We're at the Mecca of it all." For St. Edward to be successful, Haggenjos (230 kills, 206 digs) and senior setter Katie Yohn (353 assists, 326 kills, 110 blocks, 204 digs) will need to click and the Wave's role players will need to do their part. "It's important to find their weaker passers and where we can get our points," Walton said. "We'll stick to what we do best. We'll try to play our game and make them adapt to it." Yohn's experience with the Green Wave Elite Eight basketball team two years ago should help settle her teammates this weekend. "I'll be a lot calmer," said Yohn, who is headed to Bradley to play basketball. "I've played on this court and in this atmosphere. I can help my teammates with confidence and tell them just to relax and not get stressed out." St. Edward is far from a two-player team. Sophomore Margie Haggenjos has a team-high 217 digs this season, senior Molly Kelly leads the team in blocks (105), senior Rachael Varley has contributed 291 assists and senior Tess Barry (69 kills, 77 blocks) has come up big throughout the postseason. Freshman Katie Ayello has also added 159 digs to the cause this season. Freeburg is in the state final tournament for the first time since 1983. The Midgets, who won Class A state titles in 1979 and 1982, survived 23 hitting errors in the supersectional to make it here. Freeburg is far from midgets on the court, with 10 players 5-8 or taller, including outstanding 6-2 junior Kayleigh Cox (178 kills, 232 blocks), 6-0 junior Colleen Yarber (254 kills, 214 digs) and 5-11 sophomore middle Chelsi Hummert (155 kills, 103 blocks, 171 digs). Senior libero Andrea Bolt, the coach's daughter, is signed with Saint Louis University. "It was our goal to get here," said coach Bolt, whose team lost in the regional semifinals last year. "We knew we had a lot to work on and accomplish over the course of the season but we set a plan with the end in mind and here we are. The girls are excited to be here. It's a big arena but I think they can handle the pressure of the big crowd and the big court."
Notable: Walton isn't the only member of St. Edward's team with a state medal from 2004. Freshman Katie Ayello, who was in fifth grade at the time but her sister, Laura, was a junior on that Green Wave team and Katie was a manager, thus she walked away from Redbird with a medal - Freeburg libero Andrea Bolt, the coach's daughter, will play Division I volleyball at Saint Louis University, where St. Edward coach Jaime Walton's brother, Kyle, is an assistant coach.
Advancement: The winner of today's match will take on the winner of the Tolono Unity (26-12) vs. Princeton (28-9-2) match at 12:45 p.m. Saturday for the state championship. The losers play at 11:45 a.m. Saturday for third place.