St. Viator earns some time off
After libero Stephanie Rountree's ace gave St. Viator a 25-15 win over Dundee-Crown in the first game Monday, the Lions' girls volleyball players knew they could perform even better.
"We were told by our coach (Charlie Curtin) that if we held them under 12 points in Game 2, we would not have practice this Saturday," said Lions' co-captain and middle blocker Kelly McConnell. "We just wanted to show them that this was our home."
Well, the Lions (5-1) won't be in their home practicing Saturday.
They held the Chargers to 3 points in the second game and registered a 25-15, 25-3 victory in the nonconference match which served as a season opener for the Chargers.
Junior Lauren Bunda served the final 13 points of the match, including 6 aces, to clear out the Cahill Gymnasium.
"It just happened," said Bunda of the finest varsity serving string. "It was jump floats which I've been working on."
"She's got a nice jump float," Curtin said. "It moves all over."
McConnell (6-for-6, 5 kills, 3 blocks) was moving all over at the start of Game 2 as she put down 3 of her 5 kills in the first 6 points.
Senior Mary Calov's blast made it 10-1 and moments later it was 12-3 when Bunda stepped to the line to end the match.
"It was our first match and we have a lot of young girls," said veteran Chargers coach Tracy Williams. "We hung in there very well in the first game. In the second game, we started self-destructing. Nothing was working for us."
Junior Rebecca Wika collected 3 digs for D-C.
"She was probably our shining spot," Williams added. "Other than that, we have a lot of work to do and unfortunately we have four matches this week so we don't have a lot of times to correct things. All I'm asking is that the girls improve every match."
In between games, a handful of St. Viator girls asked their parents to turn up the cheering volume because the loudspeaker system was not working Monday.
But with junior Carlyn Clevenger (36-of-37, 19 assists) running the offense, the Lions produced plenty of noise themselves in Game 2.
Senior Kelly Travaglio finished the match perfect on offense, going 5-for-5 with 5 kills. Other attack leaders were Emily Leazer (12-of-16, 5 kills) and Christina Brinkman (10-of-11, 5 kills).
Leazer sparked the defense with 7 digs, followed by Brinkman (5) and Clevenger (3).
Wheeling d. Maine West: Bianca Szafarowicz and Kelsie Jurik each put down 7 kills as host Wheeling won its season opener 25-22, 20-25, 25-23. Stephanie Fuchs (10 assists) and Samantha Calderon (7 assists) directed the majority of the Wildcats' offense while Szafarowicz (13 digs), Jurik (12), Amy Lee (10) and Tori Menelle (9) sparked the defense.
Maine South d. Conant: Host Maine South (2-2) rallied for a 23-25, 25-19, 25-18 victory as senior Amy Kustka led the Hawks with 9 kills. Conant (0-1) was led on attack by Chelsea Vanicek (9 kills), Allie Bauch (6) and Antoinette Schiffer (5) while Marne Wiklanski handed out 19 assists.