St. Francis finishes ASICS tourney in 7th place
Peg Kopec has seen many a good team humbled by the gauntlet at Mother McAuley.
Hard to feel too bad about this St. Francis finish.
Kopec's Spartans dropped their first two Gold division matches at Saturday's Asics Challenge in Chicago but recovered to beat Florida's Venice High School 19-25, 25-23, 25-17 for seventh place at the 24-team event.
"I thought, all and all, we finished on a positive note," Kopec said. "This tournament is good for us."
Assumption, from Louisville, beat No. 1 seed and previously undefeated Joliet Catholic 17-25, 25-17, 26-24 to win its third straight Challenge championship and 10th overall. Cary-Grove took second in the Silver Division and Crystal Lake South won the Bronze.
Minutes after dropping a tough 20-25, 25-21, 25-23 decision to Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach, Calif., St. Francis was back on the court to face Venice for seventh.
The hangover was evident in dropping Game 1, but the Spartans came back behind Kelsey Robinson's 15 kills and 7 from Cassie Rio, Meg Vonderhaar and Gabe Zito.
St. Francis (22-2) bettered last year's finish, when it went winless in Gold Division play. The Spartans won the Silver two years ago. They have never won the tourney title. Six of the top 20 in a recent PrepVolleyball.com national poll were at this year's tournament, including No. 7 St. Francis.
"We came back for that last game and we said, 'We're not going to go 0-3 today,' " St. Francis setter Kristen Kelsay said.
Undefeated coming into the day, the Spartans bolted out to a 15-11 lead on Sandburg in quarterfinal-round action after a kill by Daiva Wise. But the Eagles came back to win Game 1 25-21, then rallied from down 11-5 in the second game to take that one 25-23.
Robinson had 12 kills for St. Francis, which struggled to put up a good block and was tested by a scrappy Sandburg team that repeatedly dug them out.
"Hopefully, we'll play them again at the (Maine West) Pumpkin tournament (in two weeks)," Kopec said. "Maybe the roles will be reversed."
After splitting the first two games against Mira Costa, St. Francis led 23-20 in Game 3 after Robinson's 15th kill. But 6-foot-3 Mira Costa senior outside Kalyn Fonoimoana, recognized as the No. 1 player in the country, put down 5 straight kills to finish the match. The USC recruit finished with 19 kills. Vonderhaar had 11 for St. Francis.
"Oh, I've heard of her," Kelsay said of Fonoimona, "but I've never seen her before yesterday. You always have to know where she is on the court. I thought we played well against them."
Cary-Grove made a nice impression in its tournament debut.
After splitting two matches in Friday pool play, the Trojans beat host McAuley 25-12, 20-25, 25-22 and Kentucky's Notre Dame Academy 25-23, 27-25 before falling to Wisconsin's Catholic Memorial 25-21, 25-23 in the Silver final.
"We're real proud of our showing here," Trojans coach Patty Langanis said. "It's been a tournament we've always aspired to be a part of. Overall we couldn't be happier. In general our play improved so much. We were hanging in there with some of the top teams."
Kelly Lamberti had 50 kills over five matches and Casey Grochinski 45 digs for Cary-Grove (19-4).
"Our offense became a lot more dynamic this weekend," Langanis said. "Our setter, Abbey Heredia, created a real diverse offense, which we had to have to be competitive. And Kelly raised her game to a whole new level."