Powerful St. Francis too much for Rosary

The Rosary volleyball team made the most of its final regular season match against St. Francis, but a valiant showing was not enough to overcome the formidable Spartans.

The Royals fell behind 14-7 in the first game before rallying to within two points at 17-15.

But eight straight points from St. Francis sent the perennial power on their way to a 25-15, 25-13 sweep.

The Spartans' victory meant an undefeated conference season (12-0) for the Suburban Christian

"We didn't adjust well to what they did," St. Francis coach Peg Kopeck said about the Rosary comeback. "(Rosary) was serving short and we thought we could stand the same way the whole time. We're ready for the postseason, but tonight our focus was on the undefeated conference championship which was a nice thing."

Rosary (17-18, 4-6) will play its first-round playoff matchup against Kankakee on October 29 at Aurora Central Catholic.

"Our problem is we can't keep up at that level of play," Royals' coach Lisa Kasper said. "They played well in the first game. Then we got off to a bad start in the second game and it was downhill from there."

Tennessee-commit Kelsey Robinson, whose spikes and serves looked laser-guided missile attacks, led the Spartans with 11 kills, seven digs and three aces, yet Kasper found her team's block attempts against the dominant outside hitter to be a positive.

"Kelsey's a good player," Kasper said. "She did not do as much damage against us that she could have. If you're getting her to tip and roll shot then that should be a point for you. If you can't dig that, then that's your own fault."

Rosary was led by sophomore Amelia Wegman's five kills and senior Emily Weber's three, while Haley Norris added four digs and Lindsey Juriga six assists.

"We need to communicate and execute better (for the postseason)," said Weber, whose team committed too many unforced errors. "We make one error and focus on it, then we dwell on it and make another. It's a cycle."

Said Kasper: "We need to minimize our mistakes. The other night, we had 15 unforced errors. That's the first thing. Next, we need to speed up the game on our side and get to where we need to be."