Class 1A volleyball: St. Bede defeats Woodland, captures first regional in 20 years

HENRY - In a girls volleyball tournament such as the Class 1A Henry-Senachwine Regional where the lower-seeded team pulled off the upset in all of the six matches, it’s safe to say nothing went the way it was supposed to go.

Don’t try telling that to the newly crowned regional champion St. Bede Academy Bruins, though.

St. Bede defeated the Woodland Warriors, 25-17, 25-20 Thursday evening to claim the second regional in program history 20 years after the first, with head coach Abbi Bosnich – a player on that 2001 regional title team – returning to the sideline after the recent birth of her daughter.

“The girls are really peaking at the right time and playing really well,” Bosnich said. “We went up to the Plano tournament two weeks ago, and I saw a switch in the team. They played different, they played together, and it was very much a team. I knew after that we were going to be OK.

“It didn’t matter if we were the 10 seed, the 1 seed, the 2 seed. We were going to play hard every night, and that’s what I saw all week.”

The Bruins (14-19-1) – the 10th seed in their half of the sectional Bruins – advance on to the Class 1A Serena Sectional, opening Monday at 5:30 p.m. against No. 3 Lanark Eastland in the first semifinal, followed by No. 2 Newark vs. top-seeded Pearl City.

No. 8 Woodland – which followed up winning the Tri-County Conference Tournament by upsetting both Serena and No. 1 seed Yorkville Christian to earn its spot in Thursday’s title match – finishes its season with a record of 21-9.

“I don’t know if it was nerves or what it was, but we were off a little bit,” Woodland coach Michelle Pitte said. “It definitely wasn’t our best game, but I can’t look at what just happened tonight. I have to look back at the entire season.

“Overall, these girls always fought, always came back. We were always the underdog, and to get here was unexpected. I’ll take that away from tonight.”

Aside from a pair of one-point leads in the night’s second set held at 4-3 and 15-14, the Warriors played from behind all night. St. Bede asserted itself right away by winning the opening set’s initial seven rallies and not allowing Woodland any closer than four points for the remainder. Emily Robbins put an attack off the Woodland block and to the floor for the all-important point 25.

Set two was played much more evenly, but again the Bedans made Woodland chase them most of the way. Woodland’s aforementioned 15-14 advantage was lost on a soft Ali Bosnich kill to tie things, and the sophomore put down another to give the Bruins the lead for good and start off a nine-point Mia Waters service run that made the Warriors’ hopes of forcing a rubber set increasingly unlikely.

Woodland did resist the Bruins’ first four match points – Ella Sibert, Clara Downey and Kaleigh Benner all putting down must-have kills in that stretch – but the fifth time was the charm. A great Leah Smudzinski third-hit bump down the net and over led to a Warriors hitting error to start the St. Bede celebration.

Sibert had a monster high school finale for Woodland, putting down a match-best 13 kills while adding two stuff blocks and six digs. Jena Easton (11 assists), Cloee Johnston (two aces, three kills), Lexi Struble (eight digs) and Clara Downey (five digs) also paced the Warriors.

For St. Bede, Grace Maschmann had 17 assists, Robbins tallied 16 digs, libero Payton Giordano had 13 digs, and Maschmann and Waters each served up two aces. Up front, the attack was led by Ali Bosnich (six kills, one block) and senior Lia Bosnich (eight kills, two stuff blocks).

“It’s like a dream,” Lia Bosnich said. “From the start of the season, I never would have thought we’d get here. Us being here tonight with our huge student section giving us energy just felt so good.

“It was a dream I never thought would happen.”