Rosary takes down St. Francis for 2nd time
Even though Rosary knocked off St. Francis on Sept. 10 in Aurora, Rosary coach Lisa Kasper didn't like her team's chances in the rematch Wednesday in Wheaton.
You couldn't blame her.
Kasper was just being realistic considering St. Francis has won 17 of the past 18 Suburban Catholic Conference girls volleyball titles and measures home winning streaks not by matches, but years.
It looked like the past was going to repeat itself when St. Francis came out clicking to build a comfortable lead in the first game.
But then Rosary tightened its defense, strengthened its block and put history on hold. The Royals pulled off a comeback in the opener, then rode their momentum to a big start in the second game en route to sweeping St. Francis 27-25, 25-15 in front of its large home crowd.
"Honestly, I did not think we were going to come in here and beat them just from past history," Kasper admitted. "And it kind of showed a little bit that first half in the first game, but I give our girls credit. They really turned it up."
St. Francis (24-3, 9-2) went on the offensive early, jumping ahead early and stretching its lead to 12-5 in the first game.
The Spartans still held a 23-19 edge before Christine Hartmann and Lindsey Weber went to work and led Rosary (18-4, 11-0) back. They came up with back-to-back blocks and took turns landing kills as the Royals scored the next 5 points en route to a closing 8-2 run capped by a Hartmann ace on game point.
In Game 2, Rosary scored 10 straight points to take an 11-1 lead.
St. Francis closed within 13-8, but the Royals soon answered with an 8-point run to pull away to a 22-8 lead before Weber officially ended the match with a block.
The final play was representative of the match that saw Rosary score 9 points on blocks.
"We got blocked and we did not block," St. Francis coach Peg Kopec said.
Rosary proved its 25-18, 20-25, 25-17 victory in the first meeting was no fluke. By sweeping the series, the Royals look ready to win their first SCC title since 2004.
"No one's been able to beat St. Francis twice in their conference, so taking the conference title for ourselves is something we really wanted and we just had to play like it," Hartmann said.
Hartmann and Weber each finished with 8 kills and 3 blocks. Kelsey Demetralis totaled 14 digs, Ali Sikic collected 13 assists and Kylie Schalz added 3 kills, 3 blocks and 2 aces for the Royals.
Kelsey Robinson had 7 kills to lead St. Francis, which last lost at home on Oct. 20, 2004 against St. Edward. The Spartans won their next 21 home matches before Rosary extinguished the streak.