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Waubonsie Valley holds on
2011. | Corey R. Minkanic~For Sun-Times Media
Waubonsie Valley may have figured one upset was enough this night, but that didn’t make its advancement to Thursday’s title match of the Oswego Class 4A Volleyball Regional any easier.
The Warriors, seeded fifth in the West Aurora Sectional field, prevailed 25-21, 25-18 over 12th seeded Romeoville, but it was a struggle. In the preceding match, the 13th seeded hosts shocked No. 4 Naperville Central 25-20, 25-17.
Oswego and Waubonsie Valley will meet Thursday at 6 p.m. for the championship.
“We jumped out to an early lead of 14-6 but they made a big run and caught up with us at 16-16,” said Waubonsie Valley coach Kristen Stuart. “There were a couple of uncharacteristic errors on our part and they blocked really well and that gave them a lot of momentum.”
After a timeout to regroup, the Warriors changed strategy, got the lead back and went on to claim the first set behind some strong serving.
“We went away from our outsides and went to our big kids, Brittany Rampersad and Rachel Minarick and then we got a couple of aces (from Lisa Studnicka and Danielle Vandenberg),” said Stuart, whose team is 23-12.
The second set was also an up-and-down affair for the Warriors, who trailed 12-3 before rallying to tie at 15-all.
“Until then, I was worried,” said Stuart. “(Romeoville) was blocking so well it was hard for us to put a ball away against them and their defense was really strong. We pulled away by about five points and then strong serving and a smarter attack carried us.”
Minarick led the way with nine kills and 10 assists. Studnicka added six kills and libero Lauren Clarke had 15 digs.
Waubonsie Valley had reason for optimism entering the regional. The Warriors have beaten Oswego once and Naperville Central twice, despite being seeded behind the Redhawks.
“I know they’ve been without outside Kendall Ward for about a month,” said Stuart. “But after they lost the first set they really struggled (in the second).”
Senior outside hitter Sydney Volovski, who missed time early in the season with a broken hand, led the Panthers with seven kills, three aces and three digs.
“We watched the whole thing,” Stuart said of the first-match upset. “The first set was really close, point-for-point but a couple errors by Central made a difference and then a couple service errors hurt them.”
Senior outside Brittany Maertzig had four kills and three blocks and Destiny Steursel added four kills and two blocks for Oswego, which also got three kills and three blocks from middle Katherine Daley.
Waubonsie won a meeting between the two regional finalist earlier this season at the Warrior Blast Tournament.
“I wasn’t that surprised they beat Naperville Central,” said Stuart. “They played us well. They’re tall and have a lot of offensive options and play defense well. We’re definitely not looking past them. Hopefully, we’ll play with more consistency than we did tonight.”
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