Rosary overpowered by St Francis

Updated: September 13, 2011 9:47PM

A very tough week for the Rosary volleyball team got a little tougher Tuesday.

The Royals, who are in a stretch where they take to the court five out of six days, dropped an emotional 25-22, 23-25, 25-22 Suburban Christian Conference Blue battle with nemesis St. Francis. Rosary’s strong effort came on the heels of a lackluster two-set loss to Marian Central on Monday.

“I don’t like to complain about the officials, but I don’t think they did a very good job,” said Rosary coach Lisa Kasper, whose protest of a call late in game 3 cost her team a key point that boosted the Spartans’ 19-18 lead to 20-18.

The ref said a red card after he had given the Royals’ bench a yellow was the reason.

“One of them asked me before the match if we used line judges and when I said, ‘No,’ she said, ‘Well, I apologize beforehand.’” continued Kasper. “I knew we could have a problem. But as I told the girls, you have to control what’s going on on your side of the net and then those bad calls don’t come into play.”

St. Francis did and climbs to 13-1 overall and 4-0 in the league while Rosary falls to 7-4 and 2-2.

The home team had only themselves to blame for dropping Game 1, however.

Rosary broke from a 5-5 tie and led twice by seven points – at 12-5 and 20-13 – only to have the Spartans rally behind Rosary errors, some big hits from middle blocker Daiva Wise (6 kills, 3 blocks) and a five-point serving run by McKenna Kelsay to tie it 21-all.

It was tied again at 22 when Rosary’s ninth unforced error of the opener by Kasper’s count gave the visitors the lead and Taylor Reckards followed with a service ace and setter Carley Warner (16 assists) steered the ball to an open spot on the court for the game-winning kill on the next point.

“We didn’t dig ourselves a hole,” said relieved St. Francis coach Peg Kopec, “we dug ourselves a pit. We climbed out (to win the opener), jumped back in (in game 2) and then climbed back out. They’re a little, um, cardiac, people. But, no matter what happens, they have a lot of perseverance.”

So did the Royals, who cut down their four first-set service errors from four to two, got two aces from Mary Graham, four kills from Mia Wegman (10 for the match) and two each from Briana Flagg (9), Kate Stefanski (4) and Marissa Prochaska (4) to send it to a decisive game 3.

It was a battle, featuring ties at 4-4, 7-7, 11-11, 12-12 and 18-18 before the Spartans finally took control. A block kill from Mary Baken and another kill by Warner helped the visitors move out to a 23-18 advantage.

Two of Grace Churney’s team-high 10 kills, sandwiched around a three-point Rosary run, closed it out.

Rosary plays today in the Wheaton Warrenville South Tournament, travels to Batavia on Thursday and then returns to Wheaton to finish the tourney on Saturday.

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