OP_110217

46 | November 2, 2017 | The orland park prairie Sports
opprairie.com
Eagles cruise past Knights, clinch regional girls volleyball title
Erin Redmond
Freelance Reporter
Sandburg’s Erica Staunton
was well aware of what was
at stake.
With a regional title on
the line and her team in the
midst of a double-digit win
streak, the junior outside hitter
brought everything she
had to the Class 4A Sandburg
Regional Championship.
And it paid off.
Staunton led the Eagles
with 10 kills, helping them
down Lincoln-Way Central
in straight sets 25-14, 25-19
Thursday, Oct. 26, to capture
the regional crown and extend
their streak to 14 games.
“It’s good to keep the streak
going,” she said. “[Lincoln-
Way Central is] a really good
team, so I think we really executed
well to come out with
the win.”
After dropping a tough
first set, the Knights seemed
to find their rhythm in the
second. They jumped out to a
10-6 lead, thanks to a pair of
kills from both Kylie Kulinski
and Cassidy Wyman, as
well as an ace from Michelle
Burk, before Sandburg called
a timeout.
The brief pause was just
what the Eagles needed, as
they went on a 9-2 run to take
the lead at 16-12 — a lead
they would not give back.
“Honestly, I don’t know if
it was jitters or what, but we
couldn’t pass the ball,” Central
coach Mary Brown said.
“I changed the lineup slightly,
switched my setters’ positions.
That helped. Also, we
started passing the ball. Once
we pass the ball, we’re in it.”
Abigail Stefanon powered
the rally, finding the
gaps in Central’s defense to
knock down two kills and
an ace. Staunton also added
two kills in the run, including
one that tied the game at
12-all.
Players from Sandburg and Lincoln-Way Central get into
pregame huddles.
Stefanon, who tallied seven
kills and an ace for Sandburg,
slammed the ball to the
opposite side of the court
to score the match point for
the win, sending the Eagles’
bench into a frenzy.
“We were making sure we
execute one point at a time,
and that’s how you get those
big leads,” Sandburg coach
David Vales said. “The second
set, we saw Lincoln-
Way Central spread the ball
out, start to pass better, and
made us have to work a little
bit harder.
“[I told them go] back to
the whole one-point-at-a-time
[mentality]; don’t overdo it.
We were making little errors,
and I told them to ‘play your
game, and if all six people do
that, you’re going to win.’”
With exception of the
brief deficit in Set 2, Sandburg’s
synchronized mentality
was on display the whole
game. The Eagles soared out
to a seven-point lead in the
first set, jumping ahead 11-4
early on, as they hammered
the Knights at the net.
Two aces from senior
Maureen Imrie, paired with
kills from Stefanon and
Staunton, respectively, put
their team ahead 5-1.
The Eagles tacked on
Libero Rachel Krasowski prepares to serve the ball Thursday, Oct. 26, during the Sandburg
Regional finals against Lincoln-Way Central. Photos by Erin Redmond/22nd Century Media
Sandburg’s Abigail Stefanon (far right) attempts to tip the ball over the net and past the
reach of a pair of Lincoln-Way Central defenders.
five more kills — two from
Staunton, two from Madison
Hart and another from Stefanon
— before the Knights
could score one of their own.
Megan Barry knocked
down a point, and Kulinski
chipped in with another moments
later to cut the lead in
half at 12-6. Unfortunately
for Central, its offense was
not able to find a groove,
scoring just two points — an
ace from Kulinski and a kill
from Wyman — for the remainder
of the game, getting
its other points off Sandburg
errors.
Wyman led the Knights
with six kills, while Kulinski
had five with an ace.
“I’m just really proud
of my girls,” Brown said.
“It’s been a rough year. We
haven’t had any big hitters,
so we just had to learn to
play defense and play scrappy.
I feel like we did that all
year. We play with heart. We
never give, no matter who
we’re playing. Sandburg had
us beat at the net big time.
Serving is what really killed
us. We couldn’t pass.”
The Eagles advanced to
take on Marian Catholic at
6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30,
in the Class 3A Tinley Park
Sectional semifinals at Andrew,
after press time.
And keeping their season
alive will take everything his
team has, Vales said.
“You’ve got to be playing
your best,” he said. “You
can’t allow for little lapses
or go on a bad run; every
point really does matter.
Those teams [this] week
are national-known teams.
[We’ll play] Marian Catholic.
Marist is in there. [Lincoln-Way]
East we lost to, so
we have to bring it.”
For more on how the Sandburg
girls volleyball team got
to the finals of the Sandburg
Regional, see Page 45.