Sports
Girls Volleyball Sectionals: Oak Forest Bows Out to Illiana; Marian Sweeps Past Queen of Peace
Bengals let leads slip away in both games of Tuesday night's Marian Catholic sectional semifinals. The host Spartans take care of business to advance to Thursday's final.
definitely had its chances during Tuesday night’s Class 3A Marian Catholic Sectional semifinal volleyball match against Illiana Christian.
But in the end, the second-seeded Vikings were too much for the third-seeded Bengals, as Illiana earned comeback wins in both games, 25-22, 30-28.
Illiana (25-12) will take on host and top-seeded (22-16) for the sectional crown on Thursday at 7 p.m. Marian Catholic swept past Queen of Peace 25-15, 25-15 Tuesday night in the other semifinal match.
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Oak Forest seemed to be on its way to beating Illiana in game one, as the Bengals used a 6-0 run to take a 21-16 lead. However, the Vikings closed the match on 9-1 run to win 25-22.
The Bengals looked to be on the verge of forcing a decisive game three after jumping out to a 13-4 lead in game two. But back came the Vikings again, taking what looked to be an insurmountable 24-22 lead.
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To Oak Forest’s credit, the Bengals fought back and even had three chances to win the second game, but they made service errors in two of the three failed attempts.
The Vikings eventually put the game away, and the Bengals saw their season end with a record of 22-16.
“We just didn’t get the job done—it is as simple as that,” Oak Forest coach Amanda Brown said.
Meanwhile, Marian Catholic had little problem taking care of Queen of Peace for the third time this season.
“This was a total game for us,” Spartans coach Ryan Summers said. “For most of the season, part of our game has been hot while another part was not, so it was exciting to see total team effort.”
Marian junior Nicole Manno set the tone, getting three service points to start game one as the Spartans jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
The Spartans made it 16-8 and closed out game one with Manno serving the game-winning point.
“She has been one of our strongest servers all year,” Summers said of Manno.
The Spartans took another early lead in game two and were led by the outstanding play of Colleen Rynne to advance to the sectional final.
“We were expecting to do well since we have beaten them before,” Rynne said. “We stayed focused and didn’t really miss anything all game.”
Amber Clay who had eight kills and 13 digs, Jessica Brzozowski-Fryzel had 13 digs, Kelsey Clark and Jasmine King each had three kills and Rynne was 55-for-55 setting with 16 assists for Marian.
