Reilly Rally Sets Fenwick Girls Volleyball Past OPRF

Maggie Reilly made all the right choices.

The junior setter distributed the ball to the right place at the right time down the stretch to lead the girls volleyball team to a 23-25, 25-19, 25-21 victory over visiting Thursday night.

“She knows what she’s doing,” Friars coach Kelly Colangelo said. “I feel confident in giving her the offense.”

Outside hitters Hannah Sophie and Olivia Soja were Reilly’s favorite targets. Each finished with 10 kills.

“They did really well,” Reilly said.

“When they play well, we win,” Colangelo said. “That’s how it goes.”

“We didn’t stop their left-side hitters at all,” OPRF coach Don August said. “Their left-sides just hammered us time after time after time. We adjusted our block, we adjusted our defense and we still couldn’t stop them.”

As the match hung in the balance with the teams tied 17-17 in Game 3, Reilly expertly ran Fenwick’s attack to tip the match in the home team’s favor. The Friars (3-3) scored five consecutive points to pull ahead 22-17. They landed three kills in the run – a Sophie hit from the left side, a Meagan Schoen spike off the block on the right and a Sophie smack down the block on the left.     

Reilly’s sets were on the money. Fenwick committed only one hitting error over the final 12 points. That mistake allowed OPRF (4-6) to pull within 23-21, but the Friars scored the next two points to win the match. Schoen landed a kill from the right side off a backset by Reilly, who then fed Soja on the left side for a match-point kill.

Audrey Griffen led OPRF in kills with seven. Teammates Alena Tourtelotte and Kiley Nelson added five apiece.

The opening game featured 17 ties. OPRF scored three of the final four points with the help off a pair of kills by Tourtelotte to claim the first game.

But the Huskies committed 16 errors in Game 2 to help Fenwick fight back.

“We let them stay in the game,” August said.

Colangelo saw her Friars pick up their energy after the first game.

“There was just a lot of fight in them,” Colangelo said. “It was that whole hometown pride-type deal.”

The Friars received five kills from Soja in the second game and then seven kills from Sophie in the third.

“I was going to the outsides, but the outsides were working so I’m going to do what’s working for the team,” said Reilly, a two-year starter.   

It marked the third straight year that the home team won the match in the neighborhood rivalry.

“It basically means everything,” Reilly said. “It’s for bragging rights for the whole year.”