IC Catholic Prep, Timothy Christian to meet in third straight sectional championship

WOODSTOCK – For the third year in a row, IC Catholic and Timothy Christian will meet in a sectional final.

Second-seeded IC Catholic outlasted top-seeded Richmond-Burton 25-21, 20-25, 27-25 in the first semifinal of Tuesday’s Class 2A Marian Central Sectional, and No. 1 Timothy Christian beat No. 2 Rockford Christian 25-17, 25-21 in the second to set up another date between the crosstown rivals.

The teams from Elmhurst will meet in the title game at 6 p.m. Thursday. IC Catholic has won the previous two matchups and went on to place second at state in both 2022 and 2023.

“Two years ago it was in the city at Christ the King, a year ago we were all the way out in Genoa, and now both of us are driving an hour and a half to come back here,” Timothy Christian coach Scott Piersma said. “They’re a team we know well. They play defense ... they’ve always played great defense. They’re built to try and slow you down and frustrate you.”

IC Catholic (23-14) needed a full-team effort to get past R-B (36-2), which fought all the way back from down 24-19 in the third set. Senior Elissa Furlan, a Wright State commit, had six of her team’s final seven points as the Rockets refused to go away, scoring five straight points as they tried to keep their season alive.

Senior outside hitter Emily Carling (15 kills, 16 digs, two aces) gave the Knights a 25-24 lead before Furlan came back with her match-best 21st kill to tie the set at 25. But IC Catholic pulled out the win, getting two straight kills from Carling to end the match.

IC Catholic played R-B earlier in the season but lost in three sets.

First-year coach Lauren LaVigne felt that experience played a big role Tuesday.

“The way the girls can just come together and fight makes it easy for me because I don’t have to sit there and be stressed,” she said. “Since we lost a lot of great players last year, I feel like we’ve always gone into games a little bit like the underdog. I think that helps get them excited. Playing them before, they wanted it. They wanted it so bad, and I knew my girls were going to get it done ... no matter what the score was.”

Senior middle blocker Delilah Hyland had 10 kills, five digs and three blocks for the Knights, Maura Grogan had five blocks and five kills and libero Natalie Lawton finished with 38 digs.

Lawton, along with junior setter Mary Kate Hilgart, Hyland, Grogan, Abby Pikulik and Carling are all returning from last year’s 2A state runner-up.

“We knew that they were going to push hard,” Lawton said of R-B. “It was really stressful. We knew we could do it. We knew if we stuck together, we could finish the game. That’s what we are. We’re a really close team.

“During practice we work on situations like that and how to get out of it. We really put it into play today.”

In the second semifinal, the Trojans (36-2) cruised in the first set and had to come back from a 15-11 deficit in the second to earn their spot in Thursday’s final.

Senior outside hitter and Texas commit Abby Vander Wal had 11 kills, five aces and eight digs, junior middle blocker Ella Rickert chipped in nine kills and junior Miriam Pozdol-Niego had 10 digs and one ace.

Vander Wal, who is 6-foot-3, had three consecutive aces for the Trojans with the teams tied at 20 in the second set. Rickert had a kill for a 24-21 lead and sophomore middle blocker Audrey Williams ended the match with a kill, giving Timothy Christian its program-record 36th win in a row.

“Abby is a threat from all over,” Piersma said. “Everybody knows her, but she’s a tough person to stop. Attacking, serving, even defensively with her length in the back row, too. She can keep things up that other girls might not because she can reach so much.”

Rickert is excited to get another shot at IC Catholic.

“36 wins in a row, it’s a great feeling,” Rickert said. “I’m so excited for Thursday night. We have a great community here at Timothy. We’ve beaten them two times already this year, so we can do it again. There’s a lot of nerves, but there’s also a lot of excitement.”

Lawton hopes the Knights can make it three wins in a row over the Trojans in the postseason.

“They have really good hitters and they’re a great team,” Lawton said. “We want to get back [to state]. We lost a bunch of seniors last year, but we want to prove that we can win and continue that.”