Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

Mater Dei volleyball team rolls over Mattoon

Knights jump out to a quick 10-1 lead in both games

BETHALTO -- The Mattoon Green Wave wanted a do-over, but it probably wouldn't have mattered. Mater Dei was that good Thursday.

The Knights needed just 31 minutes to kick the Green Wave to the curb in the title match of the Class 3A Civic Memorial Sectional, winning 25-10, 25-8 in a match that had all the drama of a pie-baking contest.

"The girls said in the locker room that they don't mind losing a hard-fought match, but that wasn't us," said Mattoon coach Susan Hutchinson. "They wanted a do-over. If we could have a do-over in an empty gym with no crowd, we'd do it."

It's hard to picture the Knights (33-6) playing much better in any setting as they bolted to 10-1 leads in both games and left the Green Wave (24-11) in their vapor trail.

"I think we all played really well," said Mater Dei senior middle hitter Tabatha Albers. "Every one of us was on. We don't worry about embarrassing them. We just keep pushing and we don't want them to come back in the game. We just keep striving to 25 points."

Brooke Schulte had a match-high eight kills while Albers and sophomore Kayla Eversgerd each had three for the Knights, who claimed the school's 20th sectional title.

Mater Dei is one win away from making it's 19th trip to the state tournament in Normal. All that stands in its way is Champaign Centennial (34-5) at the Chatham Glenwood Super-Sectional at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The Chargers outlasted Chatham Glenwood 26-24, 24-26, 25-20 on Thursday to win the Lincoln Sectional.

Mater Dei coach Fred Rakers had to squint to find any flaws in the Knights' performance against Mattoon.

"I just hope we can keep doing it," Rakers said. "We played kind of solidly. We passed pretty well and really didn't have any flukes. We were serving a little too deep, but if there was a negative, that was the only one."

Rakers watched Mattoon beat Triad 25-23, 27-25 in Tuesday's semifinals and came away concerned.

"I'm always afraid of who we play, I don't care who it is," Rakers said. "They looked good against Triad. Triad got 16 and 20 points off of us last time. What I liked is Triad hung in there with them, which maybe meant they were not that good.

"You don't want to build confidence in the other team, and you build confidence in the other team by letting them have some free points and getting by with something."

Mater Dei gave away nothing against the Green Wave, using a six-point service run by Alyssa Hitpas to take a 10-1 lead. A pair of aces by Schulte made it 15-5 as the Green Wave had no answer for the Knights.

"We haven't seen them before the other night, but I knew if we all came out and played hard that we could beat them," Albers said. "It was awesome. Once we got those big runs, we were all pumped up and knew we could keep going. I was excited."

Mater Dei had just eight errors compared to 21 by the Green Wave. The Knights wiped them out in 16 minutes in Game 1 and 15 minutes in Game 2.

Hutchinson was dumbfounded by the play of her club.

"Where was my team and what did you do with them?" Hutchinson joked with several reporters. "That was not us. I think our luck ran out. I don't think they were intimidated. Their spirits were high and they were eager to play, then it just came to a screeching halt.

"We just could not shake it. It was a horrible, horrible dark cloud that just would not leave us. Nothing we could do worked. They just could not unhitch that heavy load, wherever it came from."