Joliet Catholic makes sure it's not St. Francis' year

The chorus from the Joliet Catholic student section said it all:

"This is our year."

The Angels, knocked out of the volleyball playoffs the last two seasons by St. Francis, turned the tables on the Spartans with a 25-23, 25-27, 25-21 win at Saturday's Class 3A Oswego supersectional.

"It's nice to come out on the winning end of it for once," Joliet Catholic coach Chris Scheibe said. "We're so tired of losing to St. Francis."

Joliet Catholic (37-3) advances to next Friday's state semifinal at Normal's Redbird Arena. St. Francis denied the Angels a trip to state last season with a win in supersectionals.

"This is the match we've been looking forward to all season," said Angels junior outside Annemarie Hickey, who carried her team's attack with 22 kills.

Down a game and 19-14 in Game 2, St. Francis roared back to extend the match. A Kelsey Robinson kill started the comeback and 2 kills by Meg Vonderhaar tied the game at 21-21. Joliet Catholic turned away two St. Francis game points before Vonderhaar put down a kill to finish it.

"I'm proud of the way we played," Robinson said, "and I'm proud of the fact that we never gave up."

The Spartans (32-8) carried that momentum into Game 3, 3 Robinson kills and 2 by Vonderhaar pushing St. Francis out to a 12-8 lead.

After a Hickey tip kill, Angels junior Jennifer Murphy served up six straight points in a critical stretch that gave Joliet Catholic back the lead at 15-12. Two of the points came on Murphy aces.

"We just couldn't break (Murphy's) serve," St. Francis coach Peg Kopec said. "She's their best server and she's pretty good. They just made less mistakes than we did."

"Jen's been doing that all year for us," Hickey said.

The Angels led the rest of the way. It was 18-17 after a kill and tip kill by Vonderhaar, but Joliet Catholic scored 5 of the next 6 points to all but finish it.

"I wish I could get that feeling back, being up in that third game," Robinson said. "We let down. It was hard to come back."

Robinson had 19 kills and 7 digs, Vonderhaar 12 kills and setter Kristen Kelsay 33 assists. If there was any consolation for St. Francis, all three will be back next season.

"It's nice to know that we only graduate four people," Robinson said. "We're going to come back even harder next year."

"At the beginning of the year, our motto was 'The kids can play,' " Kopec said. "These are two teams who both deserve to be playing downstate."