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Eisenhower makes Shepard share crown with Richards
Updated: October 20, 2011 8:24PM
For the match, she’d had exactly one kill.
To say the least, Eisenhower’s Cayley Green didn’t overthink things when she went up for the potential match-clinching spike in Thursday’s South Suburban Red finale against host Shepard.
“Oh, God, I just thought, ‘Don’t miss it,’ ” Green said.
She didn’t. A split-second later she had two kills and Eisenhower a 16-25, 28-26, 25-23 victory.
“It was for our seniors,” Green said of her late heroics. “I’ve been playing with them since my sophomore year. The least I could do was win for them. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Karliegh Krchmery had 10 kills and nine digs, Michelle Garcia 13 digs and Emily Arenas 34 assists for the Cardinals (18-10, 7-6).
No. 10 Shepard (16-8, 10-3) was led by Sam Ziola-Vega (12 kills, 13 digs), Natalie Carberry (10 kills, 15 digs, 3 aces), Stephanie Williamson (22 digs) and Stephanie Korbakes (26 assists, 3 blocks).
The loss cost Shepard the outright title in the Red. The Astros will share the crown with Richards, which defeated Reavis on Thursday. Shepard won the head-to-head battle Oct. 11.
“We knew they (Eisenhower) were good,” Shepard coach Dan Grunauer said. “The girls came out and in the first game played well. The second game they definitely got a little complacent. But Eisenhower stayed calm and collected, and once the game got tight it seemed like our girls got a little scared and afraid to finish.
“At that point Eisenhower was ready to go, and we weren’t.”
Indeed, the Astros were in total control, cruising in Game 1 and ahead 17-11 in Game 2 when a simple hitting error gave the serve back to the Cardinals.
Danielle Salinas didn’t leave the service line it until Eisenhower was in front 18-17. During that stretch Tori Berrios put down one kill and Krchmery went back-to-back for two more.
Shepard still had a chance to put the game away, up 24-21, but committed three consecutive unforced errors.
The teams battled past the 25-point mark, with Krchmery breaking the final tie (at 26) with kill. Another Astros error accounted for the last point.
Game 3 was a back-and-forth affair until Eisenhower went in front for good at 15-13 via back-to-back kills by Krchmery.
“We just started pulling out what we really can do and what we know what we can do,” Green said. “It was the basic stuff, like calling the ball and just getting the ball in the court.”
Shepard left the court as champion, if not a winner.
“I told the girls that despite losing the last match of conference this way you still can’t take anything away from the fact that we are still conference champs,” Grunauer said. “The season they put together given some adversity that had gone on at the beginning was truly phenomenal. It attests to their toughness.”
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