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Girls Volleyball: Benet holds off Cary-Grove for 4A title
Updated: November 12, 2011 10:44PM
There were just too many Haggertys for Cary-Grove to deal with Saturday at Redbird Arena.
Six-foot-3 senior middle hitter Meghan Haggerty had 18 kills and an even more staggering 22 service points, and 6-1 sophomore Maddie Haggerty had 16 kills to lead Benet (39-3) to a 25-12, 22-25, 25-16 victory over Cary-Grove and the IHSA Class 4A state volleyball championship.
Meghan Haggerty served 12 consecutive points in Game 3 as Benet broke open a 10-10 game with a 13-0 run that sealed the school’s first state volleyball title. Maddie Haggerty had six kills during the run and Meghan Haggerty added two aces.
“It was awesome,” Maddie Haggerty said. “We all really worked so hard. I can’t explain it. I’m so proud of my team. I may only be a sophomore, but this is the year and this is the group of girls to finally win a state title.”
Meghan Haggerty admitted that she had never spent so much time at the service line in any match during her career.
“I have been practicing really hard on my serving,” she said. “Usually it’s our hitting and blocking, but in a match like this it came down to serving. I had to step up. If we were going to go down, we were going to go down fighting.”
Benet dominated Game 1 behind Meghan Haggerty, who punished the Redbird Arena hardcourt with eight kills, most of the straight down variety. The Redwings opened leads of 10-5 and 18-11, and closed with a 7-3 flurry capped by a Gabby Pethokoukis block.
But Cary-Grove took control of Game 2 early, breaking a 4-4 tie with a 7-2 run with Ashley Rosch doing most of the damage. The Trojans’ lead swelled to 19-10, but Benet refused to go quietly, closing to within 21-19 before Cary-Grove pulled away and ended it with a Rosch kill.
Benet took an early 10-6 lead in Game 3, but three straight errors and Rosch kill tied the set at 10-10. But with Meghan Haggerty at the service line, Benet went on its unbelievable run before Melanie Jereb stopped the bleeding.
But it was too big of a hill to climb for Cary-Grove (37-5) , which finally succumbed on a Pethokoukis kill.
Jereb led Cary-Grove with 12 kills and Rosch added nine kills. Jenna Jedryk added 10 kills for Benet, which also got 41 assists from Hannah Kaminsky.
In the third-place match, Meghan Niski had 15 kills, Nichole Lambert added seven kills and Erienne Barry had 32 assists to lead St. Charles East (35-7) to a 25-23, 22-25, 25-21 victory over Marist (34-8). Mallory Salis had 14 kills and Kelly Marcinek added 12 kills for Marist.
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