Girls volleyball: Horner's long serving run seals sectional title for St. Francis
At 6-foot-3, it goes without saying that Addy Horner is a force at the net.
On Wednesday she put on an unforgettable show 30 feet away from it as St. Francis swept Deerfield, 25-19, 25-9, to win the Class 3A. St. Francis Sectional championship.
St. Francis (30-8) advances to Friday's Class 3A Antioch Supersectional against Belvidere North (30-6) at 6 p.m.
"When Addy gets on a roll she's hard to stop," Spartans coach Lisa Ston said. "She served excellent. To not make an error and be able to serve that aggressive is impressive."
After dropping the opening set, Deerfield (29-8) took an early 3-2 lead in the second set before junior Emma Delaney's kill tied it at 3-3 and sent Horner up to the service line.
She wouldn't leave it until St. Francis was ahead 15-4.
During the lengthy scoring run, Horner, who has committed to Wisconsin, had four straight aces before Deerfield coach Jonathan Bolek called a timeout. Once play resumed, Horner buried another one of her sinkers, as she had the Warriors struggling to just getting a partial hand on the ball before it crashed to the hardwood and another point was added on the scoreboard.
"I can't remember serving for that long," Horner said. "I give credit to my coaches. We practice serving everyday for at least 10 minutes. We do a ton of drills with pressure on you or you're (practicing being) up. If you miss, you run. We do super-pressure drills that have really prepared me well for these situations. The coaches have really prepared me the last three years."
Even after the Warriors found a way to return Horner's serves, they didn't have an answer for the Spartans' potent attack at the net. Senior Shay McMillen had three kills, senior Gabriella Rendina had another, Delaney teamed up with Rendina on a block and the Warriors committed a hitting error during the remarkable scoring run.
"We have a big bond and when we start off a run we keep it going and going," McMillen said. "It's crazy the team chemistry we have. We always have a positive attitude with everything we do. We are always pushing each other and cheering each other on. It's an ongoing happiness that just doesn't get any better."
While one huge scoring run broke open the second set for the Spartans, a couple smaller ones played a big part in their ability to win the first set.
After trailing 8-4, the Spartans scored six straight to pull ahead 10-8.
When the Warriors rallied back and the teams were deadlocked at 11-11, the Spartans used a 5-0 run to take a 16-11 lead.
And when the Warriors rallied to get to within 21-18, an errant serve followed by a kill from senior Anna Paquette gave the Spartans a 23-18 cushion. They'd finish the set on a nifty pass backward from Horner to Delaney for a thunderous kill before a Deerfield error ended it.
"We knew Deerfield is a very good team and they're a great blocking team," Ston said. "Their libero (Berit Black) is fantastic and their pins all swing deep cross-court which is hard to defend against. We knew we had to execute our game plan to be successful and that first game they were point for point with us for a long time."
The defending state champs believe in themselves and trust one another. They're now just a victory away from returning to CEFCU Arena in Normal.
"We have a lot of trust in each other and have a lot of players that could do a ton of different things," Horner said. "There's never a time we'll give up. There's always a new thing we'll try so we'll never go down without a fight."