Macs mighty good
So determined. So powerful. So smart.
Ellie White has earned some glowing compliments during her short career at Mother McAuley.
She earned another one Wednesday night after leading the host Mighty Macs to a 25-10, 25-23 victory over Marist in a Class 4A sectional final.
It came from McAuley coach Jen DeJarld.
“Ellie is a 1% player,” DeJarld said. “There are very few — a 1% type of person who can take instruction, not even practice it, understand it and do it.”
The sophomore outside hitter was 100% magician before a capacity crowd of 2,000 in Chicago.
White finished with 14 kills, seven digs and three blocks for McAuley (33-6). Peyton Brokemond added eight kills and Mary Kate Sheehan had five, while Caroline Macander contributed 28 assists and eight digs and Northwestern recruit Gigi Navarrete made 16 digs.
Kamryn Chaney led Marist (31-8) with 12 kills and three blocks. Elise Ward and Mary Clare Brusek each had five kills, while Sophia Davidson made 10 digs.
White hardly surprised with her effort against Marist. But her methods were still astonishing for the Mighty Macs, who will host Willowbrook (37-1) at 6 p.m. Friday in the supersectional.
She was pretty much all power in Game 1, which the Mighty Macs dominated. But when Marist jumped out to a 16-7 lead in Game 2, White worked the court like a geometry major.
Twice in a row, she caught Marist completely off-guard with tips from the left pin that dropped to the floor on the right side.
“We’ve been practicing that,” White said. “I’ve just been seeing the court well. I knew the placement of it. I felt like I needed to switch it up and get them back on their toes.”
White used another tip to get McAuley within 22-21. She then stood tall at the net with a block to make it 22-22.
Point 23? It came on a White laser down the left line. She also had a hand in on the finish, combining with Keira Ohse for the match-closing block.
So determined. So powerful. So smart.
“It just feels great, but I couldn’t do these things without my team,” White said. “With the pass, the set ... it’s the whole team.”
White wasn’t the only magician on the court for McAuley.
Macander’s tip for kill broke a 23-23 tie. Earlier, she came up with the surprise kill of the match for point 16. She actually had her back to the net when she backhanded a flip that went over and landed untouched.
“In our game plan, we saw when the middle was serving for the libero, the left back was open,” Macander said. “When I saw the middle was going to serve, I felt this was my chance.”
Even if she did it the hard way. “I didn’t want them to know what I was doing,” Macander said, laughing.
And then there was the defense. Navarrete had company as teammates Sam Falk managed 11 digs and Olivia Knapp had 10.
But during the longest, most dramatic rallies, Navarrete was the one flinging herself across the floor to bring up monster Marist hits.
“Oh, that was so much fun,” Navarrete said. “Even when we didn’t get the point, we played so hard in those rallies. We just tried our hardest, and this is what happens when we try our hardest.” The RedHawks, however, roared back from a flat start to dominate in the first half of Game 2.
Chaney powered up with kills during a 7-1 opening burst. Brusek found her bearings in the middle on quick sets for kills. Even as McAuley was rallying, Brusek’s push shot to the back row built what looked to be a comfortable 21-15 lead.
But White’s back-to-back tips changed the tide.
“When you see it happen the first time, it shouldn’t happen the second time,” Brusek said. “It was just a mental game. We let them in it, and soon as you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.
“But we can’t say that we didn’t try our best. We gave it 100% and poured our hearts and souls onto that floor.”