St. Francis falls to Joliet Catholic in heavyweight showdown
By DENNIS JACOBS – editorial@kcchronicle.com
WHEATON – The official IHSA brackets show it was for the Class 3A sectional championship.
You can forget about brackets and classes.
The IHSA volleyball state championship was likely decided Thursday night when Joliet Catholic (38-1) prevailed in another epic three-game thriller with host St. Francis (36-3), 20-25, 26-24, 25-22.
A few other schools still will have the opportunity to prove that statement wrong, but it’s hard to conceive of anyone beating the Angels after they narrowly staved off being eliminated by the Spartans in a sold-out Spyglass Athletic Center.
The key point of the match came with St. Francis leading 24-23 in the second game. The Angels had to scramble in desperation to keep the ball alive before Alyssa Warren found the back line with a kill to tie the game.
“Those are the kind of points I live for,” Joliet Catholic senior Annemarie Hickey said. “I love digging the ball.”
Hickey also loves spiking the ball, as she finished with 18 kills on a dazzling array of smashes, tips, and pushes.
Joliet Catholic scored the next two points to force a third game.
“I thought we had it the second game and we kind of gave it away at the end,” St. Francis coach Peg Kopec said. “We just let it slip away. We made some silly mistakes and that’s it.”
St. Francis senior Cassie Rio said trying to regain the momentum at the start of the deciding game wasn’t easy.
“It was definitely tough to come back because the same thing happened last year,” she said, referring to a 2008 supersectional loss to the Angels. “It was just like a replay. We really thought we’d get it done this year, but in the end, we couldn’t. We gave it everything we had.”
Rio did her part, giving St. Francis an early lead in game three with a pair of kills, but Joliet Catholic reeled off four unanswered points to take a lead that was never relinquished. Rio finished with nine kills.
“Cassie Rio played outstanding,” Kopec noted. “The first game, [Meg] Vonderhaar had a great match.”
Vonderhaar, a 6-1 junior outside hitter, had six of her 13 kills in game one, including a smash down the middle that beat a block on game point.
Vonderhaar and Rio helped pick up the slack for Tennessee recruit Kelsey Robinson, who was limited to eight kills.
“We really wanted to mix it up and spread it out because everyone on this team is equally talented,” Rio said. “We had the heart for it, but it just didn’t come out our way this year.”
Middle blockers Gabe Zito and Daiva Wise also were solid, combining for 11 kills. Wise had three of her five kills in the third game, including a tip that pulled St. Francis to within 20-18.
The Spartans got as close as 22-21, but a Lainey Wyman block on the next point helped seal the win for Joliet Catholic.
Wyman, a junior middle hitter, had 14 kills.
“Lainey Wyman had the game of her life,” Hickey said. “She played awesome tonight.”
Pretty much everyone on both sides played awesome, including St. Francis senior setter Kristen Kelsay and senior libero Katie Parisi.
Kopec had this advice for her seniors after another outstanding campaign: “Don’t let somebody take away the season you had. Then they beat you twice.”
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