Crusaders win C-2 title at service line
Ordinarily it’s the front line power of Tali Fredrickson, Jessica Wojcik and Stephanie Brand that fuels No. 1 Grand Island Central Catholic.
Saturday night in the championship game of the Class C-2 State volleyball tournament, most of the dirty work came instead from the service line.
The Crusaders (34-1) racked up 14 services aces and Wojcik spent long stretches at the stripe, leading GICC to its second title in three years with a 25-10, 25-6, 25-19 win against No. 3 Cambridge (26-4) at Pershing Center.
“We knew we needed to serve tough to get their middles out of system. They sure did,” GICC coach Sharon Zavala said. “Our serving was the key to this match. We had to serve aggressive.”
The Crusaders and Trojans had faced off just more than a week ago in the district final and Cambridge had taken Central Catholic to four games before succumbing. The Crusaders recorded just one ace in the contest.
The going got much tougher for the Trojans on Saturday, as GICC rolled from the opening whistle.
Although Cambridge led 3-2 in game one, Wojcik reeled off 11 straight points for the Crusaders, finding the floor with three aces along the way as Central Catholic cruised. She added three more aces in game two while sparking a nine- point run that propelled the Crusaders to leads as big as 19-2. Wojcik tallied seven aces in the match.
“We knew we had to serve strong against them because they had a good serve-receive last time,” Wojcik said. “We didn’t serve at a certain person, we tried to serve in the seams and it worked. This feels awesome. This is all we wanted all season. It’s all we’ve worked for.”
While Cambridge strung together some points of its own early in the third game, grabbing a 7-4 lead, middle hitter Shelby Schultz, with her 16 kill-per-game average, never was able to get untracked.
And this time it was Carrie Galloway’s mastery from the service line that paced Central Catholic, as she recorded two aces and GICC ran off seven straight points en route to the win.
“We thought we were prepared. They served very, very aggressive at us. We stepped out on the court tonight not ready to play,” Cambridge coach Judy Mousel said. “We had no offense. We were struggling just to get our serve-receive. When that happens it just tears the whole team apart.”
Frederickson led Central Catholic with 11 kills, while Wojcik chipped in eight. Schultz paced Cambridge with five kills.
Saturday night in the championship game of the Class C-2 State volleyball tournament, most of the dirty work came instead from the service line.
The Crusaders (34-1) racked up 14 services aces and Wojcik spent long stretches at the stripe, leading GICC to its second title in three years with a 25-10, 25-6, 25-19 win against No. 3 Cambridge (26-4) at Pershing Center.
“We knew we needed to serve tough to get their middles out of system. They sure did,” GICC coach Sharon Zavala said. “Our serving was the key to this match. We had to serve aggressive.”
The Crusaders and Trojans had faced off just more than a week ago in the district final and Cambridge had taken Central Catholic to four games before succumbing. The Crusaders recorded just one ace in the contest.
The going got much tougher for the Trojans on Saturday, as GICC rolled from the opening whistle.
Although Cambridge led 3-2 in game one, Wojcik reeled off 11 straight points for the Crusaders, finding the floor with three aces along the way as Central Catholic cruised. She added three more aces in game two while sparking a nine- point run that propelled the Crusaders to leads as big as 19-2. Wojcik tallied seven aces in the match.
“We knew we had to serve strong against them because they had a good serve-receive last time,” Wojcik said. “We didn’t serve at a certain person, we tried to serve in the seams and it worked. This feels awesome. This is all we wanted all season. It’s all we’ve worked for.”
While Cambridge strung together some points of its own early in the third game, grabbing a 7-4 lead, middle hitter Shelby Schultz, with her 16 kill-per-game average, never was able to get untracked.
And this time it was Carrie Galloway’s mastery from the service line that paced Central Catholic, as she recorded two aces and GICC ran off seven straight points en route to the win.
“We thought we were prepared. They served very, very aggressive at us. We stepped out on the court tonight not ready to play,” Cambridge coach Judy Mousel said. “We had no offense. We were struggling just to get our serve-receive. When that happens it just tears the whole team apart.”
Frederickson led Central Catholic with 11 kills, while Wojcik chipped in eight. Schultz paced Cambridge with five kills.
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