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SANDWICH – The Yorkville Christian volleyball team was seeking a little redemption after its early three-set pool play loss to Aurora Central Catholic at the annual eight-team Sandwich Invite.
The Mustangs got it in a big way by avenging the loss to the Chargers with a straight set 25-17, 25-21 victory over ACC in the championship match Saturday afternoon.
Senior Nina Schuberth and junior Chloe Saxe led the way with eight and seven kills, respectively, as Yorkville Christian ended up 4-1 on the day while improving its overall record to 11-5.
“We were super stoked to get to the championship match after we lost our pool play game to ACC,” Schuberth said. “So we kind of had a chip on our shoulder and knew we could bounce back and show how good we can be.”
Saxe concurred with her teammate.
“We’ve worked with our setter to get the tempo down and I think that showed in the championship match,” Saxe said. “Nina and I really hit well off some great sets and as a team we were able to turn things around after that tough loss to ACC this morning.”
After a 25-23, 25-16 victory over Plano to open pool play, the Mustangs followed up with a 25-22, 23-25, 15-9 victory over Streator before falling in the three-set loss to ACC 25-27, 25-21, 15-7.
That was good enough to get Yorkville Christian into the championship round where it defeated Sandwich 25-11, 19-25, 25-22 in the semifinals before storming back to defeat ACC for the title with Schuberth and Saxe delivering front and center.
In five matches, Saxe pounded down a team-best 50 kills along with 32 digs while Schuberth added 44 kills and a club-high 43 digs. Senior setter Chloe Tickel deftly placed a whopping 107 assists to go along with 21 kills and 17 blocks off the hands of junior Joey Wolgast.
“I have great respect for ACC and they beat us earlier today so it was nice to find a way to get to the championship match and turn the tables in our favor,” Yorkville Christian coach Jordan Albarran said. “Nina and Chloe (Saxe) are both very well rounded players and they played their hearts out today as did the rest of our team. I’m really proud of this group this season. We won’t settle on the success we’ve had because I believe we have much more to accomplish. Today was just a start to what I think we can become.”
Sandwich finished the tournament with a 3-2 record that earned a third-place finish after the tough loss in the semis to the Mustangs.
The Indians defeated Reed Custer (2-3) 25-15, 25-23 as the Comets placed fourth.
Sandwich (6-8) received team bests of 104 assists from senior Alexis Sexton, 67 digs popped up by senior Breanna Sexton and 47 kills from senior Claire Allen.
“We played very well today and it was fun to watch the girls compete with Yorkville Christian and they dug deep in the semifinal match even though we couldn’t pull it out,” Sandwich coach Selynda Kern said. “We fought back in the next match versus Reed-Custer to grab third place and I’m so proud of the girls and how they performed against some very tough competition.”
Serena went 3-2 throughout the proceedings finishing fifth place after a 25-21, 25-23 consolation bracket triumph over Flanagan-Cornell (2-3) which closed out the day in sixth.
The Huskers (10-3) were paced by a team leading 72 kills in the five matches from senior hitter Paige Sexton.
Streator completed its effort with a 2-3 record after besting Plano 25-22, 25-16 in the seventh place match. The Bulldog Spikers move to 7-9-1 overall on the year while the Reapers who went 0-5 on the day fall to 4-12.
Leaders for Streator on Saturday included Bella Dean (20 kills), Rilee Talty (93 digs), Ellie Isermann (34 assists), Emma Rambo (15 kills, 31 assists) and Devin Elias (seven blocks).