Dundee-Crown grabs regional

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:12PM

Some people like living in the past, but Dundee-Crown's volleyball team prefers the here and now.

The Chargers made a complete post-season turnaround after a 5-30 regular season by taking the South Elgin Class 4A Regional title Saturday with a wild 25-19, 16-25, 25-23 victory over Larkin.

"It was easy to forget about the past," senior setter Rebecca Wika said of the regular season. "Now, in the present, we're doing so much better. We just want to live in the present now."

The Chargers, seeded fourth in a five-team tourney, beat fifth seed Elgin and upset top seed South Elgin on Thursday, then toppled the second-seeded Royals Saturday despite a determined, late Larkin comeback bid.

"The chemistry of it all, the way they just came together, it's been amazing," said Chargers coach Tracy Williams. "I can't believe it, with the kind of (regular) season we had.

"I had no idea we'd be practicing yesterday or that we'd be here today."

Or be preparing for the Jacobs Sectional, where D-C (8-30) will play Rockton Hononegah in the semifinals at 6 p.m.

A young, high-spiking Larkin team seemed done when the Chragers got to match point at 24-19 after Alexis Holm's kill with a two-handed push shot. However, Larkin rallied within 24-23 on kills by Piper Johnson and Brianna Stewart, an ace by Diana Castillo and a hitting error by D-C.

But Castillo, a sophomore, suffered the rough fate of sending her serve long for the match's final point, sending the Chargers to their first sectional since 1996.

Immediately after the serve, teammates and coach Marcin Dybka rushed to Castillo's side in a show of support.

"Diana played a great match in the back for us and if not for her we might not have been at that point," Dybka said. "That was super tough. She's a sophomore and I know she'll benefit from this, and all of us will from playing under this kind of pressure."

D-C played a change-of-pace game to keep Larkin's high-flying freshmen, Stewart and Oliva Kofie, from dominating the net. It worked perfectly in the first set when they went on a seven-point run to seize control at 20-13.

But the Royals came back strong at the net in the second set, scoring 10 of the final 12 points, including a seven-point run to finish it. Kofie had six of her 10 kills in that set, including the final one on a block.

In the last set, neither team had more than three-point edge until junior Rebekah Hischke's tip kill made it 17-13 -- one of three similar kills she had that set.

"First I was trying to hit my hardest but realized their blocks were holding up my hits, so coach said to start tipping right behind the block and it worked," Hischke said.

Back-to-back kills by Tanna Svec and Alexa Shemanske gave D-C a commanding 21-15 lead but the Royals made their final run after getting down 24-20.

Alexis Holm had seven kills and Wika 18 assists, while Carlin Faulkner made 28 digs and Cassie Sommers 15 digs to lead the Chargers.

Larkin (6-23) had five aces and seven kills from Stewart and two aces and six digs from Castillo.

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