Marian Catholic earned its first trip to the Class AA state girls volleyball quarterfinals by surprising No. 5 Queen of Peace 15-13, 15-9 on Saturday.
Michelle Truszkowski had 12 kills and nine digs and Mary Welch had eight kills, 13 digs and five blocks to pace the Spartans (32-9).
Liz Kane contributed eight kills, eight digs and five blocks, while Katie Willard added 35 assists for Marian.
“It feels great to be going down to state,” Marian Catholic coach Marilyn Akey said. “We executed our game plan exactly how we wanted to.”
Laura Baetzel had six kills and five blocks and Theresa Nugent collected eight kills, six blocks and five digs for Queen of Peace (31-10), which made its last quarterfinals appearance in 1995.
Marian Catholic had made two previous supersectional appearances, with the most recent coming in 1996 when the Spartans lost to Stagg.
At Mundelein: Ninth-ranked Barrington used seven kills from Laura Holloway to open the third game on an 11-0 run and beat the host No. 3Mustangs 15-5, 11-15, 15-3.
“We all spoke up and said it’s our season,” said Holloway who finished the match with 16 kills. “We knew we were the underdogs. We just fought harder.”
Barrington (33-6-1) went on a 10-2 run to close out Game 1 behind four kills from Katie Esbrook, but Mundelein used runs of 7-0 and 5-0 to take Game 2.
Kelly Jennings had 30 assists for Barrington, while Jennifer Hynds and Brittany Kessel led Mundelein (37-3) with 10 kills and 26 assists, respectively.
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At Morton: Sixth-ranked Glenbrook South rolled past St. Ignatius 15-7, 15-1 to gain its first quarterfinals berth. Beth Zande recorded nine kills and Jenny Preuss finished with 20 assists to lead the Titans (36-0). St. Ignatius finished 26-14.
At Sterling: Moline rallied in the second game to defeated Sycamore 15-3, 17-15. Sycamore was serving with a 15-14 lead in the second game, but after a net serve, Moline (33-5-1) ran off three straight points to win the match. Molly Mangan had five kills to lead Sycamore (28-12).
At Hoffman Estates: Wheaton Warrenville South earned its first trip to the quarterfinals with a 15-6, 15-7 win over Conant. After Conant took a 4-1 lead in Game 2, the Tigers (31-8) rallied with 12 straight points behind server Annie Sadowski. Kim Crompton accounted for six of those points with four kills and two blocks during the run.
“Everything was clicking in the second game,” said Crompton who finished with eight kills and 11 digs. “We owned the net. We owned this team.”
Kathy Pawula had five kills for Conant (27-13).
Class A
At Lisle: No. 8 St. Francis eliminated St. Edward 15-3, 15-8 behind 14 kills from Amy Palash and seven kills from MacKenzie Murnane. Kiley Fister added three aces for the Spartans (32-8) while Kristin Dziubla notched four kills for St. Edward (28-11).
At Watseka: Nikki DeMik led Illiana Christian (25-14-1) with 26 assists to outlast Crescent City-Crescent Iroquois 14-16, 15-10, 15-13. Erica Bruxvoort added 25 kills and four blocks for Illiana.