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Guerin drops 3rd set to Resurrection, ends season in sectional final
Chicago Thursday, 11/1/12 Guerin's Kathleen Sweeney (14) dives after a ball during the second game of Thursday evening's match against Resurrection. Guerin won the first game, but Resurrection came back to win the Class 3A Sectional Championship, 18-25, 25-23, 25-14. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 12, 2012 9:00PM
CHICAGO — The Guerin Gators could not find the life source it needed to overcome eight-point deficit in the third set.
Fourth-seed Guerin fell behind 4-0 in the third, and third-seed Resurrection rode away with the momentum, en route to the 18-25, 25-23, 25-14 win in Thursday’s 3A Orr sectional Final.
“We fell apart,” senior Sara Brodner said. “We weren’t playing the same game we did (earlier). Everyone just fell apart. I felt like we lost the heart.”
Serving errors got the worst of the Gators, especially six that riddled them in the third and four in the second. The Bandits committed only five serving errors.
Just when the Gators got their first sideout in the third and brought the set to as close at 5-5, junior Kathleen Sweeney’s serving error handed the ball back to the Bandits. That’s when the crumbling began.
“Everything broke down in one time,” Guerin coach Dominic DiSilvio said. “You just can’t do that. … We just broke down, in a nut shell.”
The Gators struggled in their passing game, not being able to set hitters for a solid kill.
Junior setter Kathleen Sweeney distributed 15 assists, but a majority of those came in the first two sets.
In the first, outside hitter Brodner recorded three kills. Senior middle Alex Bojan added three more and also posted four kill blocks, including two that awarded her team the 1-0 lead.
“We should have won in two,” DiSilvio said.
Just when the Gators took the 5-1 lead in the second, the Bandits came out of a timeout, scoring four-straight points. That set saw eight tied scores.
Bojan had a kill that gave her team the 21-19 advantage, but the Bandits forced a 23-23 tie and ended that set with an ace from senior Lexi Mpistolarides, who had a match-high of seven aces.
With the win, the Bandits (13-23) advance to Saturday’s Grayslake Central supersectional against Richmond-Burton. This is Resurrection’s first sectional win since 1988.
For the Gators (18-14), they had their best finish ever, winning their second-straight regional title and reaching the sectional finals.
“We made history at our school, so that’s awesome for us,” senior libero Amanda Middleton said. “This is the farthest any (Guerin) volleyball team has ever gone. I’m so proud of us.”
