Girls Volleyball: Marian Catholic Edges Illiana, Wins Sectional Crown on Home Court

Playing on their home court, the Spartans gave their fans plenty to cheer about in Thursday night’s Class 3A Marian Sectional championship game.

The Spartans added another sectional championship plaque to the hallways of Marian by sweeping Illiana Christian in two games, 25-21, 25-23.

“Everybody dreams of winning sectionals and stuff like that, but I don't know if they believe they could," Marian coach Ryan Summers said. "But they obviously believe now, and I'm very proud of them.”

The Spartans will play Payton College Prep at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Class 3A Rich East Supersectional. Payton defeated De La Salle 25-18, 25-20 Thursday night to win the De La Salle Sectional.

Leading Marian (23-16) on Thursday night were sophomore Amber Clay and freshman Kelsey Clark. They were forces at the net and pounded home several key points for Marian throughout the match.

Clay finished with a match-high 12 kills, while Clark had six kills, including the winner to end the match.

“This feels great,” Clark said. “We've actually had a pretty good season. We've been working hard, doing things right. We've had our ups and downs, but this feels really good.”

The loss ended Illiana Christian's season at 25-13 and closed the book on a team that Vikings coach Nikki Van Dyke said she'll “truly miss,” because it's a “special team.”

Van Dyke said Thursday’s match came down to costly errors.

“We came out here, did what my scouting report said to do, we just made more errors. First game (was) serves, second game (was) missed hits,” she said.

Even with those errors, the Vikings pushed the Spartans to the brink in both games. Illiana was led by Felicia Schaap's six kills and Caroline Torren's 14 assists.