Girls Volleyball: Guerin knocked out of playoffs

Updated: November 8, 2011 7:37PM

Despite its best efforts, the Guerin just couldn’t solve Timothy Christian in the Winnebago Sectional semifinal on Nov. 1.

The Gators’ season came to an end at the hands of the Trojans by a score of 25-13, 25-13.

“Everything we threw at them they picked up,” said Guerin head coach Dominic Di Silvio. “Their out-of-system play was excellent. We hit harder than we have all season, and they picked it up. I can’t take anything away from them. We played well, but we couldn’t put the ball away.”

Juniors Alex Bojan and Sara Brodner had a great day hitting, but couldn’t get much to the floor. Bojan was 16-of-18 hitting but only had three kills while Brodner was perfect on 16 attempts and notched just two kills. Sophomore Becky Bartnicki hit 13-of-13 and only had two kills of her own while senior Molly Campbell recorded two kills on 4-of-4 hitting.

Senior Jackie Bartnicki had a great night setting, converting on 54-of-55. But thanks to the Timothy Christian defense, she only wound up with six assists. Junior Allison Stieber was perfect in her serve receive going 21-for-21, and sophomore Sarah Benavides was 24-of-28 on her digs/passes. The key statistic of the night was the fact that Guerin recorded no aces at all.

“It’s not that we didn’t hit well, but they just played solid defense,” Di Silvio said. “I kept telling them that this was a good team, and we knew that coming in. We had to change things up with tips, rolls, and pushing the ball into the corner, but no matter what we did, they just picked it up. We did some short pushes in to the corner, and they’d make a one-handed dig. There’s nothing more I could say. They were just very good.”

Six seniors say good-bye to Guerin volleyball as left sided player Nicole Kulach, all-around contributor Cassidy Tarpey, and right side Olivia Binkowski join Abby Sawal – who missed the season due to injury and contributed as stat keeper – as well as Campbell and Jackie Bartnicki.

The Gators finished 18-13 with a regional championship in 2011, but they look for even better things next year. Despite losing captains Jackie Bartnicki, Tarpey, and Campbell, the Gators have a lot of quality and experience returning.

Kathleen Sweeney spent most of the season with the junior-varsity squad, but looks to take over the setting duties. Bojan and Becky Bartnicki will be back in the middle while Melanie Gorny, Stieber, and Brodner return to the outside. Guerin will just be looking to fill in on the right side where Amy Lorenz may be the answer for that position.

“This was a very good season, probably the best since I’ve been at Guerin,” Di Silvio said. “There are many times they were down, but they never gave up. I asked every single one of our seniors to step up and lead and they did what they needed to do. Next year we just need some better passing and hopefully our setter will be just as consistent.”

F.O.C.U.S. Camp

Coach Di Silvio is having the last round of tryouts for his F.O.C.U.S. (Fundamentals, Opportunity, Commitment, Unity, and Sportsmanship) program at Guerin this weekend. It concludes on Sunday, Nov. 13, with a MAKEUP date for all levels from 12’s through 18’s with registration at 1:00 PM-1:30 PM and tryouts from 1:30 PM-5:00 PM. Call or e-mail Coach Di Silvio at (847) 956-0612 or dcdfocussports@comcast.net for further program information.

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