Volleyball: McAuley fourth at Challenge; loses star player

Updated: October 1, 2011 8:18PM

Mother McAuley was the last Illinois team standing heading into the Gold division semifinals of the Asics Challenge Saturday in Chicago.

Marist, Joliet Catholic, Huntley and Sandburg were all exiled to the consolation bracket after the quarterfinal round earlier in the day.

But the Mighty Macs fell short in their bid to become the second Illinois team in two years to win the Challenge, falling to (Tampa, Fla.) Berkeley Prep 25-21, 25-16.

McAuley had beaten Berkeley Prep 25-21, 25-22 when the two teams met Thursday, but Saturday afternoon the Mighty Macs could not contain the 1-2 punch of 6-foot senior Jordan Burgess and 5-11 sophomore Sidney Brown.

Burgess had 16 kills and Brown had nine kills to account for all but 13 of Berkeley’s terminations.

“I wish people could have seen us Thursday,” McAuley coach Jen DeJarld said. “We stopped them. They did have some big kills, but we played a flawless match. In my seven years as head coach, that match is one of the highlights of my career, to watch my girls execute the way they did.

“But they jump so high, they were jumping over our block,” she added. “Today, we didn’t execute the block as well as I would have liked. Our defense wasn’t as strong. You look at that Game 1 and it was point-for-point and we were right there with them until that happened.”

“That” was when McAuley libero Bridget Powell, one of the state’s top defenders, went to the floor with a right knee injury. She did not return.

“Who knows which way it would have gone,” DeJarld said. “It’s just the way it goes.”

Powell left with McAuley trailing 14-13. The Mighty Macs pulled even on a block by Liz Scanlon and were still tied at 18-18 when Burgess single-handedly ran off four straight points on three kills and a block.

Fueled by their big Game 1 escape, Berkeley (15-2) ran out to a 14-4 lead in Game 2. McAuley closed within 18-13, but could get no closer.

Scanlon led McAuley with six kills and an ace, Sidney McPhillips added five kills, 5-11 sophomore Gabrielle Ennis added four kills and sophomore setter Courtney Joyce had 18 assists and an ace.

“We learned that when we have a setback like Bridget getting injured that we need to keep working,” Joyce said. “If we need to change positions, we should all be ready for that. If we need to pull somebody off the bench, we all have to be ready for that.

“I think we did in the first game,” she added. “We fought back really hard at the end of the first game and in the second game when we were down. We did come back. We were still fighting. We broke down a little, but we never gave up. We were fighting until the end.”

Louisville (Ky.) Assumption (32-1) won its 12th Challenge title and eighth in the last 11 years, defeating Berkeley 25-17, 25-21. McAuley finished fourth, losing to Newport Harbor (Calif.) 21-25, 25-17, 25-21.

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