Girls volleyball: Freshman helps Montini finally solve St. Francis

Paige Pickering may be just a freshman, but she's well aware of the dominance the St. Francis girls volleyball program has had for several years.

She even saw the Spartans up close knock off Montini again last year while older sister Madeline was on the court for the Broncos.

The 5-foot-11 freshman outside hitter, however, put on her own dominant show on the court Monday night. In the process she put an end to the Spartans' long hold on Montini.

Pickering had the best outing of her season, and her match-high 18 kills powered Montini to a thrilling 22-25, 25-18, 25-22 nonconference defeat of St. Francis in Lombard.

The historic first win for the Broncos over St. Francis may also play a role in the Class 3A playoffs, where top-seeded Montini (25-5) could see No. 3 St. Francis (23-10) again at the Glenbard South sectional and have a bit more confidence than in the past.

"It means a lot to us because we've never beaten Francis before and obviously going into freshman year I just want to win so bad," said Pickering, who notched her team's 23rd and 24th points in the third set with big swings that made it through the Spartans' block for her 17th and 18th winners of the match.

"I wanted us to set a good example for, like, our next year's (team) so the nerves aren't so bad. Now we know that we can beat them. We feel so much better about our sectionals."

The Spartans did test the Broncos' nerves some, rallying from a 17-10 deficit to claim the first set. Katelyn Hanrahan's winner ended the opener for St. Francis, and it followed a few unforced errors by the Broncos.

The Spartans then opened a 5-1 lead in the second set following a block by Anna Calcagno. But the Broncos regrouped behind some strong play from several players, including outsides Caitlyn Meeks and Julia Marciniak, libero Joslyn Boyer, setter Tess Noonan, middle Johanna Kingsfield and of course the newcomer, Pickering.

"I'm 1 for 1," Pickering joked about her record against the Spartans. "So last year when I was watching my sister and this team playing St. Francis, it was like, oh my God, they just know how to come back … and we knew that they could do that.

"So once we started losing our focus tonight, I was like 'Come on.' And then when we lost we knew we had to get the energy back. We knew we had to start pounding balls again and start playing like the team that we are. We started 16-0 this year and we knew we just had to get out there and play like that again."

The Broncos never trailed in the third set, in large part to solid serving that saw Noonan and Meeks each unleash 4 aces, but a 17-11 lead was trimmed to 22-21 before finally finishing off the Spartans.

"We played very resilient. They have incredible servers and they serve a very tough deep ball," St. Francis coach Lisa Ston said. "Once we kind of figured that out we got a little better. Our offense was able to hit the shots we asked them to hit and then our defense kept us in the game."

But it was just too much Pickering, and too many other Broncos also playing well.

"We have never beaten St. Francis," the Iowa-bound Boyer said after recording 9 digs and 2 aces. "We came out like the first game never happened and we just refocused. We came out even stronger the second and third sets."

And what about the freshman?

"Paige had one heck of a game. She showed up today, which was awesome. Playing these types of teams she knows she has to show up," Boyer said.