St. Francis comes oh-so-close to knocking off Joliet Catholic
Kelsey Robinson has played for a team at the IHSA's state volleyball tournament, the one at Redbird Arena.
The St. Francis senior knows the difference between dreaming of it and actually running out that tunnel.
It was there for St. Francis. One more point. One last kill.
And then it was gone.
Joliet Catholic, down to match point to the Spartans, rallied to win the Class 3A St. Francis sectional championship 20-25, 26-24, 25-22 in front of a sellout crowd of nearly 1,200 at a raucous Spyglass Center in Wheaton.
"It was one of those feelings that everything's OK, this is it and you're going to win," Robinson said, "and then it all gets taken away from you. You wish you could do so much more. But congrats to JCA. I hope they win it all."
St. Francis, seeking to become the first Illinois team to defeat defending state champion Joliet Catholic this season, took a 24-23 lead in the second set on a Meg Vonderhaar kill. The Spartans appeared to put down a hit on match point, but Angels senior Alyssa Warren and a teammate remarkably dug it out at the net. A Warren kill later in the do-or-die rally tied it.
"Whenever I'm on defense," Warren said, "I was taught that you go for every ball. You never know what's going to happen. I just dove for it."
Two points later an Annemarie Hickey kill, one of her match-high 19, gave Joliet Catholic the set.
"The conversation was nothing technical (during a timeout with St. Francis up 24-23)," Joliet Catholic coach Christine Scheibe said. "I just asked them, 'Do you want this to be the last point of your high school careers?' They went out there, and I don't think any of them wanted to be the one to make the mistake, to let the ball hit the floor."
The turn of events no doubt stunned St. Francis, which earlier was whistled for a rare delayed serve call that gave Joliet Catholic a crucial point with the Spartans serving up 22-20.
"I felt like we had it," St. Francis senior setter Kristen Kelsay said, "but we didn't finish. We fought strong that third set, but I think we all felt we should have had it that second set."
St. Francis took its final lead at 2-1 in the third set on a Cassie Rio kill, but Joliet Catholic answered with 4 straight points, 2 on Warren kills. St. Francis drew within a point five times, the last at 22-21 on a pair of Rio kills and a Joliet Catholic hitting error. But a Spartans error and Hickey kill put the Angels at match point. After a Joliet Catholic service error St. Francis served long to end it.
Warren had 8 kills and 18 digs, Hickey 14 digs and Lainey Wyman 9 kills and 4 blocks for Joliet Catholic (38-1), which will play Oak Forest on Saturday at an anti-climactic Oswego supersectional.
"This," Hickey said, "felt like the state championship today."
Vonderhaar had 13 kills, 6 in the first set, including set point. Robinson had 10 kills and 16 digs and Rio 8 kills.
It was perhaps St. Francis' best match of the season. Enough to beat any other team in the state.
But in a match between arguably the two best teams in the state, the de facto state championship, Joliet Catholic eliminated St. Francis for the second straight season. St. Francis' quest for state title No. 9 ends on its home floor.
"I feel like this game should have been played at Redbird Arena," Robinson said. "It's awesome to play on my home court, but it's nothing like the experience of state. I would have given anything to go back there."