Mater Dei dashes Marian Central’s title hopes
NORMAL — Marian Central’s first appearance in a girls volleyball state title match was no nail biter. Defending state champion Breese Mater Dei saw to that.
The Knights used sprawling defense, precision passing, powerful hitting and smart tipping to blitz Marian Central from the outset of their 25-9, 25-13 victory in the Class 3A title match at Redbird Arena Saturday.
Mater Dei (38-3) took control from the start of Game 1 with a 9-0 run and never let up on the way to the school’s second straight state title and seventh overall.
“It just wasn’t our day,” Marian Central coach Laura Watling said through tears. “I really do feel like we went into this with a good mentality and they wanted it, but we just didn’t have it today and it’s unfortunate. I wish we would have been able to fight a little bit more. But at the end of the day it is what it is because Breese is one heck of a great team.”
Senior opposite hitter Kayla Eversgerd contributed to the Knights’ opening onslaught when she sent a spike off the Marian Central block, which was mostly ineffective. The ball fell for a point and a 7-0 lead, forcing third-year Marian Central coach Laura Watling (98-22) to call timeout.
But little Watling advised could limit the effectiveness of focused Mater Dei and 6-foot-2 middle blocker Abbey Winter, who made 3 tip kills in the opening eight points of the match.
In fact, things went so well for the Knights early on that an audible groan actually emanated from the Mater Dei crowd when captain Brooke Schulte — committed to play basketball at DePaul — mishit a tip attempt that finally gave the Hurricanes their first point, down 9-1.
“Our team just clicked,” said Schulte, who finished with 7 kills, 4 digs and 2 blocks. “The passing was perfect, the sets were amazing and our middles put away everything. There’s not one thing I could say to somebody that they did something wrong.”
Everything continued to go right for the Knights. A Winter tip made it 20-8, a back-row attempt by Eversgerd hit the tape and fell softly for a 21-8 lead, and Winter did the honors on game point when she nailed a wicked spike up the middle for her fifth kill in only eight attacks to that point. Winter finished with a match-best 10 kills.
In Game 2, Marian Central senior Emma Hussey put away an overpass for one of her team-high 3 kills. It pulled the Hurricanes within 5-4, but Mater Dei’s Emily Koelling scored a cross-court kill, followed by a tip kill to put the Knights back on track. Mallory Mensing’s ace made it 11-5 and Mater Dei was off and running. The Knights terminated 17 of 35 attacks in Game 2.
An attack error by Marian Central ended the match, but the loss didn’t take the luster off the deepest state tournament advancement by the Hurricanes, who bested last year’s third-place finish.
“I think after we have a couple of days to reflect on what we were able to do, I think we can look back and say 35-7 and second in the state, you know, that’s awesome,” Watling said. “It really is. I think that eventually we’ll get around to being really proud of what we did.”