Chicago Christian battles to third

Updated: August 27, 2011 8:34PM

Host Chicago Christian took quite a roller-coaster ride to a 21-25, 25-10, 25-23 victory over De La Salle in the third-place match Saturday at its inaugural tournament.

Playing sloppy and letting the first game get away, the No. 4 Knights roared to life in Game 2 and looked like the team that won the 2010 Class 2A state title.

The Knights were hanging on to a 22-21 lead in a back-and-forth Game 3 when the ride really got crazy.

On the left side, Maggie Kamp whacked down a hard spike that appeared to carom off a double-block by De La Salle and ricochet out of bounds. The up referee, however, ruled the ball went directly out.

The Knights not only lost that point but another when Chicago Christian coach James Garcia received a red card for his reaction on the bench.

The Knights players went back to work.

“You can’t focus on the refs,” senior libero Celaine Haan said. “We weren’t going to let them take it away from us.”

Becky DeRuiter came up big with a block for kill that tied the game at 23-all. Then two Haan serves resulted in unforced errors by De La Salle that ended the match.

DeRuiter and Emily Lindemulder finished with 10 kills each, while Maggie Kamp had nine and Jessica Krygsheld seven. Emily Workman contributed 35 assists, six digs and four kills, Annika Evenhouse nine assists and Haan 17 digs.

Chicago Christian (5-1 overall) went 4-1 for the weekend, its only loss coming on Friday to Payton.

Payton, which finished fourth in Class 3A in 2010, defeated the Knights 25-19, 25-22. Munster (Ind.) beat Payton in the title match 19-25, 25-22, 25-18.

“Payton has been downstate the last three years so we knew they would be competitive,” Garcia said. “We knew we had to focus on our side on serving and putting the ball away quick because they’re very good at ball control.

“Instead, we had a lot of mis-serves (13) and they really hurt us, especially in the second game.”

Earlier Friday, the Knights beat Mount Assisi. Chicago Christian also had victories over Peotone and Reavis on Saturday.

“Last year we didn’t play a very competitive team until our eighth or ninth match,” Garcia said. “Playing Payton in our third match of the season was a good test for us.”

Reavis (1-5 overall) finished in fifth place after a 25-21, 26-24 loss to St. Edwards.

Illiana Christian (3-3 overall) was seventh after a 25-21, 25-17 victory over Mount Assisi.

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