GRAND ISLAND — It's been a long, long wait.
For St. Cecilia, the wait will have to be a little longer.
Vying for their first berth into the state volleyball championship since 1990, the Hawkettes — who had yet to lose a match to a Class C-2 school all season — first had to get by Hartington Cedar Catholic in the Class C-2 state semifinals Friday at Grand Island Senior High.
But the third-seeded Lady Trojans (30-5) — ranked No. 3 in C-2 by the Omaha World-Herald — finally broke the streak, and swept top-ranked St. Cecilia 26-24, 25-20, 25-21 to advance to today's championship match.
"Hartington played extremely well, and on the same token we played probably one of our worst games, especially with serving and serve receives. We gave away too many serves and our serve receive broke down, and you just can't do that against a good team," said head coach Alan VanCura, whose second-seeded Hawkettes (30-4) will play top-seeded North Platte St. Patrick's (30-2) in the third-place match today at 2 p.m. at Grand Island Senior High. "When that happens, it affects every aspect of our game. It's too bad for our kids to have that happen in a big game like this. And, again, it happens. We just couldn't get things stopped."
The action in the first set seemed to indicate that both teams would be in for a tight, intense affair that would take more than three sets to decide. But, after HCC edged STC 26-24 in the first two sets, the Lady Trojans took the next two sets as well to capture the win.
To read more, see Saturday's Hastings Tribune or the Tribune e-edition.>>>
