Green Wave advances to title match

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Victory did not come easy for St. Edward on Thursday night, but the Green Wave was able to push past Aurora Christian 25-13, 25-20 to advance to its Class 2A regional volleyball final.

The Green Wave (19-16) had little trouble with the Eagles in Game 1, but Game 2 proved to be a tough back-and-forth test for the third-seeded hosts.

St. Edward struggled to hold its serve as the two teams exchanged points throughout the game, with neither squad securing more than a two-point lead, until Katie Ayello went on a three-point service run to give the Wave 21-17 advantage.

The second-seeded Eagles called timeout, and rallied with three straight points to pull within one.

The Wave then called a timeout and put the game away with four straight service points.

"We just adjusted our offense a little bit and regrouped," St. Edward coach Jaime Walton said. "I had to let them know what their defense was like and that we needed to place the ball a little better as opposed to hitting it hard."

The Wave had been hitting the ball hard throughout the match, thanks to dominating net play from Katie Yohn and Kristen Haggenjos.

St. Edward's struggles in Game 2 after such a thorough Game 1 win were due to a change in the Eagles' tactics.

"They started running their middle hitters more, which threw our middles off a bit," Walton said.

Though the Wave earned the victory, the team had a lot to take away from its up-and-down play in Game 2.

"That was a little a shaky for us. We couldn't really get anything going or run a good offense," Haggenjos said. "It's great though, that that's so easy to fix. There's not a major problem with that at all, we just lacked a little mental toughness there, but we knew what it took to win and we got it done."

Haggenjos ended the match with six digs and seven kills. Yohn added six digs, 11 kills and 10 assists. Tess Barry had two blocks and five kills, while Molly Kelly contributed three blocks.

St. Edward will face top-seeded Harvard for the regional title at 5 p.m. Saturday and Haggenjos acknowledged the Hornets are unlike any opponent the Wave have faced thus far.

"It'll be a great competitive match and it will bring out the best in both teams," Haggenjos said. "We're used to playing down to our competition, so playing a better team will definitely help us play up to our full potential."

After upsetting fourth-seeded Woodlands Academy 25-22, 25-17, Genoa-Kingston's season ended against Harvard 25-11, 25-17.

"They played really well this season," G-K coach Tiffany Sitarz said. "We were underdogs the whole year.

"I don't have any club players or that many kids to choose from, but they've improved and they've left something positive for the young players to improve upon. And that's the most important thing for them to have learned."