Huntley outlasts Marian Central for own invite title
Huntley setter Eli Manning made good use of the three effective weapons at her disposal to defeat her old friends from Marian Central in the title match of the Huntley girls volleyball invite Saturday.
Manning, a senior who transferred from Marian Central before her junior year, finished with 33 assists to lead the Red Raiders to a 25-20, 24-26, 25-17 victory over the Hurricanes in a rematch of last year’s title clash.
“I’m friends with all those girls on the other side of the net, so we kind of get the most competition out of each other,” Manning said.
The Huntley setter spread the hitting opportunities among senior outsides Sam Boesch and now-healthy Ashley Smith and 6-foot-2 senior middle Jaina Jackson, though Boesch stood out.
Playing in Huntley’s third match of the day and fifth of the weekend, Boesch, a Wake Forest recruit finished with season highs in kills (21) and digs (27) against Marian Central. She also smashed the last 3 points to clinch Game 3, capped by a powerful spike along the left sideline at tournament point.
“It’s the last tournament I’ll ever play here, so it meant a lot,” Boesch said.
The victory gave Huntley a three-peat at its own invite. More importantly, it restored a bit of confidence to the Red Raiders (22-4), who recently lost 4 matches against tough competition.
“We’ve had a rough past week,” said Huntley libero Amy Dion, who finished with 19 digs against Marian Central. “Things seemed like they were falling apart. I think this tournament shows that it was just a rough patch and we’re back.”
Marian Central (22-6), was led in three Saturday matches by setter Abby Gilleland (56 assists), Tara Blake (20 kills) and Emma Hussey (19 kills). The Hurricanes were within 14-13 in Game 3 until Huntley pulled away via an 11-4 run to secure the win.
“There were times when I thought we had ‘em,” Marian Central coach Laura Watling said. “We just kind of let up and got sloppy. Huntley didn’t. They picked up their game. We really couldn’t get our passing going at the end and that threw everything else off.”
Marian Central defeated Jacobs (21-10) in a tournament semifinal, 25-23, 25-17. Jacobs, which finished fourth overall in the 16-team tournament, exerted a ton of effort in a Friday night victory over St. Ignatius, according to coach Lisa Dwyer.
After winning their morning pool play match against Belividere, the Golden Eagles simply ran out of gas. They lost to the Hurricanes and subsequently dropped the third-place match to Winnebago in three games despite 12 kills from Alyssa Ehrhardt, Maris Smith’s 7 kills and 11 digs and Taylor Laudner’s 24 assists.
“(Friday) night took a lot out of them, I think,” Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer said, “but we played well (Saturday) morning. We were happy with how we played, then we just kind of fell apart against Marian, especially in the second game. The passing broke down and some of that carried over into the game against Winnebago.”
St. Edward (16-11) notched a morning victory over Sycamore (25-22, 22-25, 25-18) to finish 2-1 in pool play to qualify for the Gold Division semifinals against Harlem. However, senior setter Katie Ayello injured two fingers trying to block a ball at the net and Harlem went on to win 25-21, 23-25, 25-22.
Ayello then sat out the seventh-place match as a precaution. The Wave dropped that one against Richmond-Burton, 25-17, 25-18.
“We were playing well, but when we lost Katie in the third match against Harlem we got a little disoriented,” St. Edward coach Jaime Dovichi said. “She’s our setter, our leader. I didn’t expect a whole lot out of our last match.
“Sycamore was a really good win for us. We played really strong against them all the way around.”