St. Edward holds off South Elgin

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Early season volleyball can sometimes be hard to watch but St. Edward played ahead of schedule on Wednesday night in Elgin.

The host Green Wave withstood a first-game comeback effort by South Elgin to win 25-19, 25-13, putting it all together when they needed to for coach Jaime Dovichi.

“Our defense clicked, our hitting clicked, and the girls all looked so comfortable out there,” Dovichi said. “I didn’t have to use one timeout. I had the confidence in them and they knew what to do. It’s nice that they’re clicking early.”

St. Edward (5-2) went 4-1 in a weekend tournament at Timothy Christian, and elevated its play in one important area against South Elgin (0-2).

The Green Wave had a long, defensive practice on Tuesday, which paid dividends in Wednesday’s win.

“It was a really good night, especially with or defense,” junior Megan Barth said. “We’ve been working really hard on our defense. We were pretty comfortable tonight and we know we have a strong front row.”

South Elgin fell behind 9-1 in the first game before battling back to tie the match at 11-11, with Renee Rush serving well during the Storm rally.

The teams were tied 18-18 before  St. Edward scored seven of the game’s final eight points, including an ace from Dominique Washington and a game-ending block by Barth.

Storm coach Joni Plach was pleased with the comeback, but discouraged by the way her side started the night.

“We had a really bad warmup and that came into play to start that first game,” Plach said. “We have the skill. It’s just a matter of, mentally, how are we going to put it together.

“We have five very talented hitters,” Plach said. “I’m running a freshman setter and a senior that has never set before. Once we can start getting it to our hitters, we’ll start winning matches.”

St. Edward ran away from South Elgin after the game reached a 9-9 tie, scoring 16 of the game’s final 20 points to ice the victory.

With Washington and CeCe Rapp swinging their way to seven kills apiece, libero Alyssa Saunders finishing with eight digs, and Sarah Madden playing well, Dovichi liked what Barth brought to the table Wednesday.

“Megan Barth had four kills and she’s always swinging, but I was more impressed with her defense today,” Dovichi said. “That was great to see.”

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