Rosary a surprising second at Wheaton
With weekends like this one in Wheaton, Lisa Kasper's young Rosary Royals shouldn't be overlooked anymore.
The ninth-seeded Royals, playing three sophomores and with two kids hurt, routed No. 1 seed Hinsdale Central before falling to unbeaten Marist 25-21, 25-23 in Saturday's championship game of the Wheaton Classic at Wheaton Warrenville South.
Unranked Rosary (12-3) has won the Plainfield North Invite and taken second at Wheaton. The Royals will look to keep it going next weekend, when they are an under-the-radar eighth seed at the 12-team Waubonsie Valley Invite.
"They can hold their heads high. Nobody expected us to come in here and finish second, including myself," Kasper said. "I'm still amazed that we won the Plainfield North tournament. We're still kind of young, in a way."
Rosarly nearly toppled Marist (11-0), which beat Benet in one semifinal, for the championship. The Royals led the first game 14-11 before a 9-1 Marist run swung the momentum the RedHawks' way.
Rosary led a tight second game 23-22 after a Mia Wegman kill. But Marist outside Courtney Collins put down a kill off the block to regain serve, and Ashley Holder aced the serve to get the RedHawks to match point. There 6-foot-4 Marist middle Lauren Zielinski, who recently committed to Georgia, slammed home the clinching kill.
Sophomore Brianna Flagg had 6 kills and Wegman 4 for Rosary against Marist. Haley Norris had 23 digs and Lindsary Juriga and Abby Konovodoff each chipped in 5 assists.
Rosary took it to top seed Hinsdale Central in the quarterfinals, winning 25-17, 25-19. The Royals trailed Game 1 10-7, but took control from there and never looked back. Game 2 was no contest, Rosary leading 10-2 at one point.
"I think we were able to get in their heads a little bit," junior outside Wegman said, "and we were able to keep the momentum the whole match. Nobody expected us to do this. It's really exciting."
Benet beat Waubonsie Valley for the third time this season in the quarterfinals 25-23, 25-16, before losing to Marist 25-22, 25-23 in the semifinals. The two teams were tied 15-15 in Game 1 before two crucial Benet errors gave Marist a lead it didn't relinquish.
Down 22-18 in Game 2, Benet came back to tie it 22-22 on kills by Lara Ontko and Jenna Jendryk and a McKenzie Kuhn block. Marist answered with a Collins kill, and at 23-22 Benet was whistled for a back-breaking net violation.
The Redwings (11-4) did come back to easily beat Glenbrook South 25-13, 25-20 in the third-place match. Ontko had 13 kills, Alyson Farm and Meghan Haggerty 4 and Jendryk 3 for Benet against Glenbrook South.
"We have a lot of room to grow," Ontko said. "We know we can do it by the end of the season, but it's so frustrating. We did everything we wanted to do this weekend, but obviously in the end it didn't all work out. We're getting there."
The Marist loss was Benet's first since moving Wisconsin recruit Haggerty back to middle from outside two weeks ago. Farm is now playing outside full rotation.
"We've just gone to a more traditional lineup," Benet coach Brad Baker said. "At the beginning of the season, we had people playing all kinds of new positions. We're playing better, playing more consistent volleyball."
Waubonsie Valley (11-6) beat Hinsdale Central 25-23, 18-25, 25-22 for seventh place.
Neuqua Valley (11-2) went 2-1 on the day, beating Naperville Central 25-20, 24-26, 25-16 and losing to Sandburg before beating Plainfield North 25-17, 25-15 for 11th place. Libero Megan Tompkins, named to the all-tournament team, had 59 digs for Neuqua.
"We played our strongest match against Naperville Central," Neuqua coach Kelly Simon said. "They made minimal errors on their side and they made us work. It's the first time I think this season my team really pulled together and we utilized all our hitters. Megan was outstanding all day. She really made a difference in that Naperville Central match. Her serve receive was tremendous; she just passed nails."