Henry-Senachwine 1A Volleyball Regional: St. Bede eliminates Marquette; Putnam County tops hosts

Winners meet tonight in regional semifinals

HENRY – It’s not uncommon for a team to focus and play well in order to celebrate someone’s birthday with a victory. It is a much rarer occasion to do that in celebration of a birth day.

The St. Bede volleyball team, which all day before its Class 1A Henry-Senachwine Regional opener against Marquette had been following on social media moments leading up to the birth of a child to coach Abbi Bosnich and her partner, Tiffany Gonigam, showed no lack of focus once it got on the court.

The No. 10-seeded Bruins rallied from a deficit of 15-12 in the first set and 15-7 in the second to come away with a 25-21, 26-24 victory over the No. 4-seeded Crusaders on Tuesday at Henry’s John C. Anderson Court.

In the night’s second quarterfinal, No. 9 Putnam County proved the adage the third time is a charm, bouncing back from two losses in the past 10 days against No. 5 seed Henry-Senachwine to win the third matchup, 25-21, 25-22, over the Mallards.

Those decisions set up Wednesday’s No. 7-seeded Woodland against No. 1 Yorkville Christian at 5:30 p.m., followed by St. Bede (12-19-1) against Putnam County (18-16-2) at 6:30 p.m.

St. Bede def. Marquette, 25-21, 26-24

In the first set of the opener, a kill by Mary Lechtenberg and five straight points by Maera Jimenez gave Marquette its 15-12 lead, but later a six-point burst by SBA’s Aubree Acuncius turned that into a 20-16 Bruins lead, and they held on from there.

Again in Set 2, a six-point service run by the Crusaders’ Kaylee Killelea opened an 11-4 edge, and later a Mikayla Backos kill widened it to 15-7. And again, the Bedans rallied behind four points by Abby Nawa, three by Grace Maschmann and two by Emily Robbins to tie it at 19. It was tied at 24 when Robbins slammed home the final two points.

“We were getting orders from the boss, even though she wasn’t here,” SBA assistant coach Christine Hanson said. “The girls have been super excited all day. We were watching on Facebook Live tonight, and we were getting updates on our watches and phones. The baby’s doing well, and both moms are, too.

“I was really happy with the energy we had coming out. We had some missed serves early to put us in a hole, but I also feel that our serves got us out of that hole. We had some service runs by a few of the girls that got our momentum back and kept it. It was a total team effort tonight.”

Eva McCallum and Lilly Craig led the Cru with five kills each, while Lindsey Kaufman had 15 digs, and Killelea and Jimenez 10 and nine assists, respectively.

“That’s the funny part of the game, the momentum,” said MA coach Mindy McConnaughhay, whose team finished 24-10. “It seemed like we got the lead, got a little too comfortable and eased up a bit, and unfortunately that got us. St. Bede is a great team that played really well. We played hard, too, but it just wasn’t our night.

“Hopefully this a lesson learned, one they’ll remember next year, because they’re all back. I hope they remember this feeling.”

Putnam Co. def. Henry-Sen., 25-21, 25-22

The nightcap was just as intense, as the Panthers didn’t take control until Avery Moutray served up four straight points to break an 18-all tie in the first set. Consecutive aces by Henry’s Gabriella Garcia got them within 23-21 before an Ava Hatton kill and Zofia Uzella ace ended it.

The second set was just as close, the Mallards leading 20-19 before a Tori Balma winner and three Hatton points gave PC the edge. A tip by Maggie Richetta and a shot by Jaidin Trone completed the victory.

“The third time’s the charm. My dad always said that it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season, and he was right,” PC coach Amy Bell said. “And if I got to pick which one of the three, I’d take this one. No one will remember those other matches. A lot of people will remember this one.

“The difference tonight was that we were all in tonight. … In the other two matches, we struggled on offense in one, on defense in the other. Tonight, through hard work and playing hard together, we put it all together and won.

“This is the time of year to peak, and tonight we showed we’re there.”

Henry-Senachwine, which saw its season end at 19-10, had Nakeita Kessling pound out seven kills.

“We knew coming into this that it would be tough to beat a good team three times in one season,” Mallards coach Rita Self said. “We know Amy is a smart coach, and we knew exactly what she was going to do, that she’d try to take advantage of our weaknesses and have her girls push the corners and there would be a lot of tipping going on, and that’s what they did. That threw our offense off and kept us from really ever gaining any kind of momentum.”