Girls volleyball: St. Viator digs out of big hole, tops Vernon Hills in sectional final

St. Viator's rally at the Class 3A Vernon Hills sectional championship match Wednesday night was the stuff that legends are made of.

After taking the first set against the top-seeded Cougars, the Lions fell behind 16-8 in set two.

That's usually an insurmountable deficit, but behind senior Reanne Valera on serve, the Lions reeled off 8 consecutive points to tie the match.

Vernon Hills came back to take a late lead, but Viator rallied again and won its third sectional championship since 2017 with a 25-15, 25-23 victory.

"It's very rare that you see that many points in a row in a game of this caliber," said Lions coach Charlie Curtin. "But we talk about persevering, continuing to go hard, continuing to do what we practice, and go on from there."

Valera said that she got control of her nerves from the service line in time to lead the Viator charge.

"I was freaking out a little bit," said Valera, a senior, "but I just told myself to calm down. We have the mindset to go point by point by point. As soon as we get one, we focus on the next one, and then the next one. We don't stop."

The Cougars came alive in set two and forged the big lead, but couldn't sustain the effort.

"We weren't passing the way we normally do," said VH coach Chris Curry, "and that took away a lot of our options. We have been a good passing team, but tonight wasn't our night. The breaks didn't go our way right from the start."

Louisa Battin had two early aces as the Lions served their way to a big advantage in the first game.

Vernon Hills was able to close within 12-9 after a kill by junior Ashley Vollen, but Viator extended the lead and closed out set one.

It was the Cougars who roared out of the gate in the second game, and paced by three kills from senior opposite Sonia Bondar (two off the block) they took the 8-point lead midway through.

Then came the heroics from Valera to deadlock the set. Vernon Hills regrouped to take back the lead, 20-18, but Viator was able to tie things up at 23-23.

Then Viator senior Ella Trieloff stepped to the service line, and hit an ace to send the Lions to match point.

"It was a lot of pressure," said Trieloff of serving for the match, "but I put my trust in my teammates. If they (Vernon Hills) got it back over, I knew that we could put it down."

After a Cougars timeout, Trieloff switched things up by serving from the left side of the court instead of the right side.

"We were trying to avoid their libero at all costs," said Curtin of Vernon Hills senior Elli Amjadi, who had been playing an extraordinary match. "Some of our serves were going way too close to the sidelines and their libero was pushed over that way. We tried to go the opposite way."

And with the match on the line, Trieloff served up another ace to give Viator the win.

"It feels great," said Trieloff, an outside hitter. "This team, they're my best friends."

"I have nothing but respect for Vernon Hills," added Curtin. "Their girls continued to fight, and they really put it to us in the second set."

"This was an amazing night, and an awesome atmosphere. It was so much fun."

Marcelina Gorny and Erin Lynch led the Viator attack with 6 kills apiece.

Amjadi had 10 digs for Vernon Hills.

"She's great," said Curry. "I hope she gets some all-state consideration. She deserves it."

"We're going to miss these kids," added the coach of his graduating seniors (Amjadi, Val Ramirez, Raquel Ruiz, Alexa Cieslinski, Peyton Self, Bondar and Ashley Harrington.) "Going through the whole pandemic thing and then last year having to play in masks. It's a very special group and they were a lot of fun to coach."