Girls Volleyball: Seniors lead Rosary past Aurora Central
BY PAUL JOHNSON For Sun-Times Media October 17, 2012 10:24PM
Aurora Central's Ally Kane controls a serve during their game at Rosary on Wednesday. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 19, 2012 3:31PM
Rosary’s volleyball program has so many seniors in it this season that the Royals don’t even need to play any underclassmen if they don’t want to.
At Wednesday’s Senior Night against rival Aurora Central Catholic, those eight seniors carried the way through the first game-and-a-half all alone before the Royals got their regular lineup into the flow.
The results were the same as they have been for the past 12 years against the Chargers, however. Rosary fought to a 25-19, 21-25, 25-20 win to close out Suburban Christian Blue play for the season. It was the first time that ACC took Rosary to three games in four years.
“We knew that losing was not an option,” Rosary senior Briana Flagg said. “We had to win. I thought that we came out a little shaky, but the seniors pulled it together to pull out the win. Everybody played and I thought we played amazing. We pulled it out.”
Rosary (23-11 overall, 7-3 SCC Blue) had a mostly senior-laden lineup to begin with. The main change in the rotation was at setter where Tori Tassos started out before giving way to the usual starter, Josephine Gallagher.
Jennifer Hewitt, who has been out with a concussion but saw some time Wednesday, served four points at the end of the first game to pull out the win.
“We didn’t want to keep her out there for long because she’s still resting,” Rosary coach Rachel Hartmann said. “But she came in and scored a lot of points.”
In the second, ACC (10-18, 1-9) jumped out to a 17-13 lead as Rosary started to integrate its normal lineup into the action.
The Chargers held on for the 25-21 win.
“It’s something that I’ve known they’ve been able to do all year,” ACC coach Jeanne Czipri said. “We haven’t taken them to three since my first year, four years since we went three with them. We did that well and we made them earn their points.”
With their regular lineup into the flow in the third, the Royals jumped out to a 14-9 lead and never looked back.
Flagg led the way with 12 kills, Erin Bowe had 10 kills and Marissa Prochaska and Kate Stefanski each had six kills. All of them are seniors.
“It was bittersweet because I don’t want it to end,” Flagg said. “I want to be with my team forever. I love my team, my coach. For me to end it like this, with this amazing Senior Night planned so well, I couldn’t ask for more.”
