Girls volleyball: Chicago Christian downs Aurora Central
By Paul Johnson For Sun-Times Media October 10, 2012 9:30PM
Aurora Central's Gail Koziol (left) and Kelsey Talkington go for a block against Chicago Christian's Sami Bruinius during Wednesday's match in Aurora. | Sean King~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 12, 2012 12:02PM
Chicago Christian’s girls volleyball team knows it cannot lose any more conference matches if it wants any shot at the Suburban Christian Blue title this season.
The Knights came out at Aurora Central Catholic Wednesday well aware of that fact.
They roared to an 8-2 lead to cruise to a 25-15 win in the first game, and then overcame some errors while trying to work in some bench players in the second game to hold on for a 25-23 win to take the match.
“After you win a game one like that, you tend to come out a little bit more excited,” Chicago Christian coach James Garcia said. “You feel a little bit more at ease. You tend to relax a little bit mentally and you start swinging away. You’re not really focused on where you’re hitting. We made a lot of hitting mistakes in the second game, trying to be too aggressive. That didn’t work to our advantage.”
Those problems didn’t exist in the first game for the Knights (17-10, 6-4 SCC Blue). They led 8-2 early, pushed it to 20-13 late and cruised to a 25-15 win.
“Nobody likes starting a match like that, but he’s got a phenomenal team,” ACC coach Jeanne Czipri said. “They started off the game strong and it took us a while to get back. Once you get in a hole like that in the first game, it’s not easy to bounce back. Second game, we started to do more of what we wanted to do.”
ACC (9-17, 1-9) jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the second game behind kills from Kaitlin Blackwell and Sam Chmielewski and an ace from Ally Kane. Chicago Christian came back to take an 12-10 lead, thanks in large part to three kills from standout setter Emily Workman, who also had 20 assists, six digs and three kills in the match.
But neither team was able to establish a big lead the rest of Game 2. Nine hitting errors and three service errors from the Knights kept ACC in the game.
“We did some things that ideally we wanted to force errors,” Czipri said. “They’re a team that can be error-prone. If you find ways to make them make those mistakes, you’ve got a chance against them.”
The game was tied as late as 21-21 before Chicago Christian finally pulled away for the win. The Knights still have to face two teams they have lost to this season, Immaculate Conception and St. Francis, before the playoffs.
Jessica Krygsheld and Emily Lindemulder each had eight kills to lead Chicago Christian. Chmielewski had five blocks for ACC while Kelsey Talkington had five kills. Clare Tack added 10 digs.
