Just like practice: Royals roll to 3-0 record, win title
AURORA -- Rosary rolled to the championship of their own volleyball tournament on Saturday with a perfect 3-0 record.
The Royals topped IMSA 25-11, 25-11 in the opening match of the tournament and closed the day with a 25-9, 25-17 win over the Rosary junior varsity team.
Their toughest test of the day was a 25-15, 25-23 win over Trinity.
"Our focus today was to make it like a practice," said Rosary coach Lisa Kasper. "We set some goals for ourselves with serving and passing. Sometimes we met them, and other times we didn't."
In their closest game of the day, Rosary battled back to a 19-19 tie in Game 2 against Trinity.
Alex Sikic set Christine Hartmann for two kills and then Lindsey Weber for another spike to put the Royals up 22-21.
The Blazers tied the score at 22-22, but Rosary scored three of the final four points to earn the win.
"We came from behind, but I think it was definitely a lack of defense on our part that kept (Trinity) in the game," said Kasper.
Rosary (25-5 overall) will play at Aurora Central Catholic on Monday. They will close Suburban Catholic Conference play at St. Edward on Wednesday.
The Royals are 12-0 in the league and have already clinched at least a share of the conference title.
In addition to trying for a perfect conference season, Rosary is gearing up for the IHSA regionals in two weeks.
The Royals are the No. 2 seed in the Riverside-Brookfield Class 3A Sectional.
"We're seeing what we need to work on," said Kasper. "Obviously in the Trinity match we needed to work on defense. That will be the main thing for us in the next couple weeks...fine tuning our defense."
The Rosary JV team finished 1-2 in the four-team tournament, with their win coming against IMSA (25-19, 25-20).
• IMSA showed several flashes of brilliant play during the tournament, but the Titans struggled with overall consistency and finished 0-3.
After falling to the Rosary varsity and JV teams, IMSA closed the day with a 25-19, 25-15 loss to Trinity.
"I was hoping for much better today," said IMSA coach Linsey Crowninshield. "No team was really picking us apart defensively. Offensively, we just couldn't put the ball down."
In their final match of the tournament, IMSA (18-12 overall) scored the first three points of Game 1 and played even with the Blazers in the early going. But Trinity went on a 9-2 run to turn a 10-9 lead into a 19-11 cushion.
IMSA led 5-2 in Game 2, but Trinity used a 10-0 run to go up 12-5. The Titans pulled to within 18-15 when Jenny Chen set Francis Mei Hardin for a kill.
That was as close as IMSA would get, as the Blazers closed the match with a 7-0 run.
"It's really just mental toughness. I can't think of anything else," said Crowninshield. "We can obviously hit, pass and serve the ball."
IMSA will host Newark on Monday, before concluding the regular season on Wednesday at Wheaton Academy.
The Titans will enter postseason play as the No. 6 seed in the Riverside Brookfield Sectional. Rosary Tournament
