Girls Volleyball: Providence Chops St. Viator Down to Size

When a player leaps into the air to strike the ball downward on a kill attempt, chances are pretty good that her team will score a point.

Those chances can come to a screeching halt, though, when the opponent blocks the spike attempt. Providence (8-2, 1-0) thwarted kill attempts on several occasions during Wednesday's East Suburban Catholic Conference opener against St. Viator, winning the match 25-19, 25-18.

"When you get a block, it almost feels like it's worth two points," Providence coach Rachel Ellingson said. "Kill-wise, we were able to spread our offense a lot. We had six hitters in there at different times, and we have a great setter (Krista Brakauskas)."

Alyssa Maloney (6 blocks, 5 kills) and Nora Mitros (4 blocks, 8 kills) caused the biggest headaches for the Lions (7-8, 0-1).

"Their blocking was extraordinary, and they played really scrappy defense, which kept us off our game for a little bit," St. Viator coach Charlie Curtain said. "I thought we played with a lot of energy, which helped us, and we finally got some girls back from injury. So, it was our first game with some of the girls back."

Dominance at the net is something the Celtics know they need to do to eliminate lengthy scoring droughts.

"We showed a lot of our strengths tonight and had a nice fan group, which is always nice," Maloney said. "I thought we played very well. We were also able to run some new things that we've been working on in practice. So, it was good to see everyone come together and work toward winning."

Mitros agreed.

"They were a good team, and they hit a lot of good balls," she said. "We worked our hardest with the blocking, the tipping and the mixing up of our shots. I think we did a good job of mixing different places to go so they couldn't read us."

The Celtics came out a big sluggish in both games, falling behind in the final one 5-2 before battling back to tie it at 9-9. They wouldn't trail by more than one point the remaining of the night and pulled away on back-to-back kills, followed by a block, by Maloney.

"I think our goal is to start out a little faster right out of the gate," Ellingson said. "We picked it up as we went along and defense and blocking are the key things."

Brakauskas led the way for the Celtics with 25 assists, Katie Urchell contributed a team-best 13 serve-receives as well as 11 digs, eight points and five kills. Mitros had 12 points and 11 digs.

"Everyone contributed, and even our practices are very good like that," Ellingson said. "I do know we're capable of playing a much faster game, but it is what it is. It's a win and everyone was able to contribute and do some good things."

The Celtics won't get much of a chance to enjoy the victory. They'll be busy all weekend in the Oak Lawn tournament and then face Queen of Peace on Monday and Mother McAuley on Wednesday.

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