St. Francis recovers to get win

Perhaps it was the unusual start time, hangover from a football playoff loss earlier in the day or Queen of Peace's tie-dye warmup shirts that had St. Francis in a haze Saturday.

The Spartans snapped out of it, though.

St. Francis survived three Queen of Peace game points to take Game 1 and rolled from there to a 29-27, 25-13 win in the Class 3A regional final in Wheaton.

“Very flat,” St. Francis coach Peg Kopec said. “Warmups were flat, everything about today was flat. We got a little more confidence after that first game, started settling in. If I would have known what it was I would have fixed it earlier. It's tough, but we won.”

A smaller-than-normal crowd and no band made for an unusually subdued atmosphere at Spyglass Center. That didn't stop the Spartans (30-7) from taking care of the business of winning their 21st straight regional and reaching the 30-win plateau for the 25th year in a row.

“We came out slow,” said Spartans senior Meg Vonderhaar, “but we realized that we had to pick it up if we wanted to win. That motivated us.”

Shaky St. Francis passing and a spirited effort by Queen of Peace (20-15) had the visitors from Burbank leading for much of Game 1. At 23-21 Vonderhaar drew St. Francis even with a kill and an ace. The Spartans later turned away 3 straight Queen of Peace points for the game. A pair of Daiva Wise kills denied game point and set up St. Francis to win it. Vonderhaar's kill of a block put it away.

If the wasted opportunity to spring an early surprise deflated Queen of Peace, it showed. Wise threw down a monster kill off a quick set from Kelly Reinke to start Game 2, Theresa Katarzynski served an ace and the Spartans were off to the races.

St. Francis' passing was much more precise in Game 2. Reinke could appreciate that.

“When the passes are on we can run the middle way more and we can run a more balanced offense,” Reinke said. “Daiva killed that one.”

Vonderhaar had 9 kills, 9 digs and 4 aces and Wise 9 kills for St. Francis, who plays Rosary Tuesday in a sectional semifinal at Rosary. The Spartans swept two conference matches with the Royals this season. Reinke added 25 assists, Gina Madonia 9 digs and Grace Churney 5 kills.

“We were a lot more focused the second game,” Reinke said. “We realize we need to turn it on a little earlier.”