Rosary makes quick work of Aurora Central Catholic
Nobody on Rosary wanted to be on the first Royals team to lose to Aurora Central Catholic in 12 years.
Thanks to a balanced effort by those Royals, they won’t.
Marissa Prochaska put away 8 kills and Brianna Flagg and Erin Bowe both chipped in 6 in a 25-10, 25-19 victory Thursday.
“That’s a good streak to keep going,” Rosary coach Rachel Hartmann said. “You don’t want to break that. It’s good to come in and start getting our confidence back. We’ve had a bunch of lineup changes, injuries, people being out sick.”
Rosary’s hitters had help. Katie Baki led the defense with 9 digs and also fired 3 aces in a 9-point service run that broke open Game 1. Setter Josephine Gallagher ran the attack with 14 assists.
“We knew they had it out for us kind of so we had to come together as a team and play as hard as we could and that’s exactly what we did,” Bowe said. “We had a really good offense with all of us hitting.”
The match started nearly an hour and a half late after a pair of exciting underclass matchups. Rosary (10-7, 3-2) came out strong, scoring the first four points on a Bowe kill, Flagg block and the first two of what would become 7 Chargers hitting errors.
“This is an intense place to play,” Hartmann said. “Even from the freshman game, I’ve never seen fans so excited. That’s what we are working on, being aggressive in everything we do, not waiting to see how the match goes but how can we set the pace.”
Aurora Central (10-16, 0-5) drew as close as 9-7 on co-captain Sam Chmielewski’s kill. Barki’s long run built a 22-9 lead, and a few points later Gallagher closed out a quick opening set with the Royals’ seventh ace.
The Chargers trailed most of Game 2 but did rally to go up 14-12 when Chmielewski served five straight points. The Royals quickly answered with a 7-1 surge, and they ended the night when Gallagher set Prochaska for her eighth kill.
“When you have lost to a team for 12 years it is kind of a mental block,” Chargers coach Jeannie Czipri said. “After they get into it they turn it around. Rosary has weapons in every position. There are things we could have done better that we just didn’t do tonight.”