Timothy Christian takes down Aurora Central

Updated: October 26, 2011 9:41PM

Timothy Christian does not take anything for granted.

“We knew we had to come out really strong,” Timothy’s sophomore setter Jenna Lodewyk said. “Ther are a lot of good teams in this regional. Even though we are ranked first, we knew we really have to fight for every game and every point.”

Timothy put its No. 1 seed and 31-3 record on the line in the first semifinal of the Class 2A regional at Westmont on Wednesday against No. 4 seed Aurora Central Catholic, which brought a 15-20 record into the match but played a significantly stronger schedule in the Suburban Christian Conference.

No matter. Timothy Christian got seven kills from Bridgitt Buikema, five kills from freshman Kacie Stoll and 20 assists and two aces from Lodewyk to defeat Aurora Central 25-21, 25-13.

“Coming into this, I knew seeds one through four could have been the top seed anywhere,” Timothy coach Lindsey Van Schepen said. “We don’t take anything for granted. We don’t even treat ourselves as a top seed.

“I knew that we’d be evenly matched against ACC,“ she added. “They’re a tough team. They’re scrappy. So we don’t treat ourselves necessarily as the No. 1 seed. We have to go out and work hard for every single game out there.”

Aurora Central Catholic made Timothy Christian work for every point in Game 1, rallying from an early 7-2 deficit to take an 11-10 lead. Timothy stormed back to regain a 21-17 advantage, but a kill by junior Sam Chmielewski had ACC within 23-20.

But that was as close as ACC would get, and Timothy was in an unforgiving mood after building a 15-6 lead in Game 2.

“It’s hard to beat a team that knows how to win,” ACC coach Jeanne Czipri said. “But we had a game plan going in, and the girls did not follow it. When they did what we told them to do, they (Timothy) didn’t touch the ball.

“We were hitting at them,” the coach added. “When you hit middle back, they’re going to get the ball up. When we told them where to hit and we told them where they were going to hit, they said, ‘How do you know?’ We’ve had that lesson all season.”

Ashley Wilk and Kaitlyn Rosa each had four kills for Aurora Central Catholic (15-21), which also got eight assists from Jill Huseman. Makenzie Vos added four kills and two aces for Timothy Christian (32-3).

“We were having fun,” Lodewyk said. “We knew that they would bring a lot of energy and so we had to come out strong right away. Despite a few minor things, we kept up our energy and kept the enthusiasm.”

“I told the girls before the match, if you go out there with an attitude you can control the game and you can do it, then I think you will,” Van Schepen said. “I just wanted them to go out there with confidence. In games like this, you can start to think, ‘Oh no, if I make a mistake it’s going to be the end of the game.’

“But as long as you take one point at a time, you will be OK,” she added. “I thought they did very well.”

Timothy Christian will meet Immaculate Conception (26-10) in the championship match Thursday at 6:00 p.m. The third-seeded Knights rallied to defeat No. 2 seed Lisle 24-26, 25-22, 25-21 in Wednesday’s second semifinal.

Delaney D’Amore led the Knights with nine kills and Kim Martino added six kills and six assists. Kellyanne Remy, Emily Hartnett, and Juliette Ambrogi each had five kills.

“One thing we do have going for us is a pretty balanced attack,” said Immaculate Conception coach Jean Field. “If you shut down one kid, we can attack from other spots on the floor.”

Vanesa Abenante led Lisle (25-11) with 11 kills.

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.