St Edward falls to tall Chicago Christian
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: May 9, 2012 9:50AM
St. Edward and Chicago Christian could meet in volleyball again, but not until the Class 2A super-sectional level, so certainly neither would mind seeing the other.
When they faced off at St. Edward Monday in non-conference play, the hosts certainly didn’t mind seeing the tall, high-flying Knights because they provided a good test of a problem area. It did not, however, provide a win for the Green Wave as middle blocker Emily Lindemulder came up with seven kills and four blocks to lead Chicago Christian’s 25-21, 25-18 victory.
“They’re very aggressive, so it was a big test for our blockers,” St. Edward coach Jamie Dovichi said. “I think we learned a lot. We need these kinds of matches to mature some of our young players.”
The Knights (13-12) have 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter Maggie Kamp and two other 6-footers on the roster, but it was 5-10 senior Lindemulder whose leaping, hitting and blocking frustrated the Green Wave (12-7) at the net.
“She’s a very aggressive player, one of our club players,” Christian coach James Garcia said. “She and our libero (Celaine Haan) are the constants for us.
“We’re largely inexperienced but those two club players have been at their positions and doing the job for us.”
Both figured prominently in the win for the Knights. St. Edward had put together six straight points for its longest run of the night in Set 1 to take a 21-19 lead.
After a timeout, Christian came out flying and Lindemulder had a pair of kills and a couple of block kills in a 6-0 run by the Knights to close the set.
“I think they just came back at us pretty aggressively,” Dovichi said. “When momentum was on our side, we needed to step it up one little notch and didn’t.
“Our blocking needed to be better there. That’s something we’ve been working on. Straight on, we’re OK. We just have to learn to read the hitters and be able to react fast enough once the ball has been set.”
In the second set, Chicago Christian went on an 8-1 run to take a comanding 11-3 edge. Later, the Green Wave seemed to get momentum behind Sarah Norman’s net play and pulled within 23-17 with a 4-1 run. But Haan ended a wild volley by knocking it backward over her head on the run from near the back line and landing it in a dead spot of St. Edward’s defense.
The Knights, who lost one set 25-23 to volleyball power Mother McAuley and took Lyons to three sets in tourney play, had five kills from Becky DeRuiter and 20 assists by Emily Workman.
The Green Wave had six kills from sophomore outside hitter Katie Swanson, three by junior hitter Rena Ranallo, eight assists by senior setter Katie Ayello, and 21 digs from sophomore libero Allison Kruk.
“She stepped up and had an awesome match tonight,” Dovich said.
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