ST. EDWARD FALLS IN 2A SEMIFINAL MATCH

Instead, the Wave (23-18) will have to settle for trying to be the third-best team in the state with another match against Princeton today.

In the school's only other Downstate appearance in 2004, St. Edward lost the third-place match.

"It hurts that we are not going to be playing in the championship (match) because most of our team is seniors," said St. Edward's Molly Kelly, one of eight Wave athletes playing their final matches this weekend. "We are playing for third tomorrow and that's what we are going to concentrate on now. We are happy to be here and we are going to come in tomorrow and give it 110 percent."

It would be hard to argue St. Edward didn't give it 110 percent in its match against Freeburg (35-5). Both games were extremely competitive with neither team holding a lead of greater than four points at any time.

"I personally feel that could have been the state championship match right there," St. Edward coach Jaime Walton said. "Both teams are so strong and very aggressive. If you are going to lose, you might as well lose to the state champs."

Freeburg, which advanced to play Unity today for the title, broke free from a 7-all tie in Game 1 to pull ahead 12-8 following a hard kill down the line by junior Colleen Yarber (team-high 6 kills).

St. Edward would eventually rally to tie it at 15 after an ace by Kristen Haggenjos (6 kills, 2 aces), but the Midgets pulled right back ahead and forced the Wave to play catch-up the rest of the way -- which it was not able to do.

St. Edward got as close as 22-21 following back-to-back aces by Kelly, but was unable to complete the comeback.

"It was point-for-point the whole time, but I thought we had to play a lot of catch-up," Walton said. "I don't think we ever lost confidence, but I don't think we gained that little bit of confidence that would have put us over the edge."

The back-and-forth action continued in Game 2. St. Edward jumped to a 3-0 advantage early after kills by Haggenjos and senior Molly Morrisroe, and an ace by Kelly, but Freeburg evened the score at 4. From there, the teams traded jabs before St. Edward took a 13-12 lead on an ace by Haggenjos and a hitting error by the Midgets.

"(Hitting) was pretty tough. It was tough to get our offense going," Haggenjos said. "We just couldn't put it all together."

St. Edward held its last lead at 17-15 before the Midgets mounted a comeback that included six straight points to take a 21-17 advantage. The Wave pulled within 24-22 down the stretch, but the Midgets finished things off with a kill by Kayleigh Cox.

"Typically, we only have one or two hitters that we've had to key on and we've done a great job with that," Walton said. "With this team, there were at least four hitters that we had to key on.

"We stayed with them really well and we fought until the very end."

St. Edward senior Katie Yohn finished with three kills, eight assists, two blocks and four digs. Senior Rachel Varley added seven assists.