Rosary escapes Wave

Rosary could never really get a strong grasp on Wednesday's match at St. Edward.

Neither could the Green Wave.

In a match that left neither team satisfied, Rosary (11-2, 7-0) walked away with a 25-17, 25-20 Suburban Catholic Conference girls volleyball victory over St. Edward (6-12, 3-4) in Elgin.

"It's frustrating, but we knew we had it," Rosary setter Christine Hartmann said. "We knew that wasn't how we play. It's that we didn't finish it the way we could have."

Hartman's serving was a major reason for the victory. In a close second game, the senior scored 9 service points, including 3 aces. She strung together a run of 3 straight service points to extend the Royals' lead from 16-8 to 19-8.

Junior Lindsey Weber added 7 service points and a pair of aces in the victory.

"When we're playing well, we pass awesome," Green Wave coach Jaime Walton said. "When we're not, our serve receive falls to pieces. I'm definitely not happy with the way we played in the second game."

A large reason for the close score in the second game came from Rosary net violations. The Royals accounted for 5 of the first 8 Green Wave points from net violations. The Green wave never capitalized on the freebies.

St. Edward scored 5 straight points off of net violations to change a 9-3 deficit to 13-8. Hartman (6 kills, 9 assists) then got the serve back on a kill and shot off 6 points in a row to extend the Royals' lead to 19-8.

"We played scared," Green wave outside hitter Kristen Haggenjos said. "And there was no reason to be scared. We played fine in the first game."

Haggenjos (8 kills, 5 digs) finished with 5 of her match-high 8 kills in the opening game. Haggenjos, with help from 4 game-one kills from Katie Yohn (6 kills, 8 assists) paced the teams to a 10-10 tie.

Rosary would then go on the offensive.

The Royals scored the next 4 points and kept control until finishing off St. Edward 25-17. Haggenjos would trim the lead to 17-14, but the Green Wave relinquished the next point with a net violation.

"Our blocking was a little off that first game," Rosary coach Lisa Kasper said. "I'm not really satisfied with how we played."

Karen Matic (5 kills), Kelly Hogan (4 kills) and Alex Sikic (8 assists) all contributed in the victory for Rosary, while Margie Haggenjos (6 digs), Stephanie Werner (4 digs) and Rachek Varley (5 assists) contributed for the Green Wave.