Payton settles for fourth in 3A

Payton's Courtney Cunningham (15) spikes the ball past Breese Mater Dei's Laura Tho.
(Michael R. Schmidt/Herald News)

November 15, 2008 BY PHIL BROZYNSKI

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NORMAL -- Payton coach Joel Anderson could only shake his head after his team’s 25-17, 25-22 loss to Breese Mater Dei in the Class 3A third-place match Saturday at Redbird Arena.

“What’s with all these teams down here tipping against us?” Anderson said, tongue partially in cheek. “We have these big girls in the middle and nobody hits at us.”

Mater Dei dinked and dunked its way past Payton to deny the Grizzlies a chance to go home a winner. Nevertheless, Payton (37-3) became the first Public League team to take home a state trophy in volleyball.

“This year has been surreal,” Payton sophomore Mari Faines said. “We’ve grown so close as a team. Courtney (Cunningham) has been such a leader to me. I’ve tried to learn from her. Just by watching her I’ve learned so much.”

Cunningham did everything she could to keep Payton’s third-place hopes alive. Her kill gave the Grizzlies a 20-19 lead in Game 2, and after kills by Laura Thole and Tabatha Albers gave Mater Dei a 22-21 advantage, Cunningham found the floor off a feed from Roxanne Rivera.

But kills from Thole and Alison Mueller and a Payton error closed out the match.

“We needed to get a little more production from our outsides,” Anderson said. “We got tremendous production from our middles. I also thought we handled the ball better in the second set.”

Cunningham led Payton with nine kills and Faines added six. Freshman Michelle Schultz chipped in three kills and seven digs and sophomore Rivera added 16 assists.

Thole led Mater Dei (36-6) with nine kills.

Payton has already begun plotting its return to Redbird in 2009.

“We talked about next year this morning,” Faines said. “We don’t want to be a one-time team. We want to prove to everybody that we belong here. We’re going to work our behinds off. Next year, we want to make a big splash.”

The Grizzlies already have.