Salis, Holder carry Marist

Marist's 5-foot-11 outside hitter Courtney Collins is undecided about her post-high school plans Unlike many of the state's top volleyball players, she has not selected a college and for the present has rebuffed several scholarship offers.

Collins has only one immediate goal.

"I want to win a state title,' she said.

Collins and her Marist teammates continue to display resiliency and grit state championship-caliber teams need to take home the big prize. Saturday in the finals of the Wheaton Classic Invitational, they shook off an uncharacteristic 19 errors to turn back a stubborn Rosary team.

Collins had eight kills, sophomore Mallory Salis added seven kills and Ashley Holder had 20 assists as No. 3 Marist (11-0) overcame deficits in both games to defeat Rosary 25-21, 25-23 and win the title of the 24-team tournament.

"We have real good team chemistry and mentally we are very resilient," Collins said. "Chemistry is one thing a lot of teams overlook."

Collins, who said she is considering schools like Iowa, Marquette and Loyola for their academics, tied Game 2 against Rosary (12-3) at 23-23 with a kill off the block after three straight Marist errors had given the Royals a 22-21 lead.

An ace by Holder and a putaway by 6-foot-4 middle Lauren Zielinski (four kills, three blocks) finally put away Rosary.

"Rosary was probably the best defensive team we played all day," Marist coach Natalie Holder said. "It is tough enough to beat Lemont on a single day, to beat Benet on a single day, and to beat Rosary on a single day, but to beat all three?"

A 9-1 run in Game 1 allowed Marist to overcome an 14-11 deficit and a 7-1 run in Game 2 wiped out an 11-8 Rosary lead.

Rosary, which reached the finals by defeating Hinsdale Central 25-17, 25-19 and Glenbrook South 25-19, 26-24, got six kills from Brianna Flagg, four kills from Amelia Wegman and eight assists by Lindsay Juriga.

"The girls can hold their heads high," Rosary coach Lisa Kasper said. "Nobody expected us to come in here and finish second. Our defense is definitely better than earlier in the year. But we still rely on our outside hitters too much. We're still hesitant to set our younger kids."

Preseason No. 1 Benet (11-4), which lost to Marist 25-22, 25-23 in the semifinals, bounced back to defeat Glenbrook South (10-5) 25-13, 25-20 for third place behind Lara Ontko's 13 kills and Kaitlyn King's 25 assists.

Alyson Farm and Meghan Haggerty each added four kills for Benet and Jenna Jendryk had three kills.

"We have only played three matches with Haggerty in the middle," Ontko said. "I still think we have room to grow. We have been working on focusing before we serve and transitioning better to the ball. We're getting there.

"It's been a little frustrating so far, but we know what we can do by the end of the year," Ontko added.

Lemont (11-5), which extended Marist to three games in a 26-24, 23-25, 25-23 quarterfinal loss, defeated Prairie Ridge 25-15, 19-25, 29-27 for fifth place.

Hinsdale South (11-4) beat Sandburg 25-21, 17-25, 25-18 to win the Silver division while St. Charles North edged Oak Park 26-28, 25-19, 25-21 to win the Bronze.

Sandburg (6-4) got more bad news Saturday when it learned that outside hitter Jenny Buczek would be out indefinitely after she was diagnosed with mononucleosis.

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