Tough night for St. Viator

St. Viator's girls volleyball team has been enjoying one of its most successful seasons in school history.

With a record of 24-9-1, the Lions have been "on" with their attack, defense and entire game for most of the season.

But Thursday night in Chicago, that wasn't quite the case.

"I guess we just had an "off" night," said Lions senior outside hitter Mary Calov (12-of-13 attacking, 4 kills and 1 block) after host Resurrection celebrated its Seniors Night with 26-24, 25-22 nonconference victory. "We dug ourselves a hole and couldn't pull out of it."

The Bandits (19-7) pulled out of 17-11 hole in Game 1 and surged to their first lead at 21-10 on an ace by senior Emily Kainer.

The Lions came back to tie it at 23-23 on ace by Stephanie Rountree before the Bandits scored 3 of the next 4 points.

"They had a lot of momentum with their Senior's Night," said Lions senior Christina Brinkman, who gave her team momentum in Game 1 with 3 straight service points, including an ace, for a 6-2 advantage. "We had a few mental errors that cost us at key parts of the match."

The Bandits, seeking their first 20-win season since 1998, broke a 6-6 tie in Game 2 with 4 straight points and never looked back.

St. Viator closed to within 11-9 when Kelly Travaglio blocked an overpass, Brinkman recorded a solo block and the Bandits committed a service error.

But that's as close as the Lions would get.

The lead expanded to 6 points at one point.

Back-to-back kills by Kelly McConnell (3 blocks) got the Lions to within 23-19, but Resurrection wouldn't let the guests any closer.

St. Viator senior Emily Leazer added 5 kills for the match while junior setter Carlyn Clevenger collected 11 assists.

"Resurrection came to play," said Lions coach Charlie Curtin. "They were fired up. They played excellent defense the entire match. They just put it to us."

Senior Stephanie Szyska led the Bandits on attack with 12 kills, while classmate Gabby Laurino had 12 blocks. Both are 5-11 middle hitters.

"It was one of our worse matches all season but you've got to give credit to Resurrection," Curtin said.

"I thought St. Viator was definitely a worthy opponent," said Bandits coach Anita Merk, whose club faces Hersey (22-1) in a 5 p.m. match today for the start of pool play in the Maine West Pumpkin Invite.

"I thought our jump serving took them out of their offense and we had some great blocking." Merk said. "Defensively, we were touching balls and getting points."