Plainfield's Pennington Powers JCA Volleyball

YORKVILLE – Standing 6 feet, she’s as tall as the other middle hitters. She blocks like a middle hitter. But Joliet Catholic Academy senior Hailey Pennington plays the middle with the mindset of an outside hitter.

In the championship match Thursday night of the Class 3A Yorkville Regional, Pennington put Rosary on the outside looking in with 9 attack kills and 4 block kills to highlight the Angels’ 25-21, 25-20 victory.

It was the 11th consecutive regional title for JCA (31-6), which jumped out to leads of 18-11 in Game 1 and 19-11 in Game 2 before Rosary (25-12) closed within 23-21 and 21-18, respectively. A kill by Pennington (Plainfield) forced a sideout in Game 1 for the 24-21 lead and the Angels stayed on course.

“I felt the girls played a very solid match,” JCA coach Christine Scheibe said. “I thought that Hailey really went after their middles and used her speed, athleticism and jumping ability to get her blocks and kills.”

Senior setter Lauren Robertson (Wilmington) complemented Pennington with 7 kills and 11 assists, while Loyola-bound senior outside Kelly Feigh (Plainfield) had 5 kills and 9 digs. JCA produced 29 kills.

As a result, senior setter Emily Schoenstedt (Plainfield) totaled 3 kills, 12 assists and 7 points and senior libero Jill Hickey (Oswego) had 12 digs and 7 points. Senior middle Gianna Lincoln notched 2 block kills.

“I thought Emily did a great job serving and setting and Lauren really was a weapon with her hitting and setting,” Scheibe said. “The girls were proud and excited to win our 11th consecutive regional title.”

JCA will host the sectional on Tuesday and Thursday next week. On Tuesday night, St. Francis plays Morris at 6 and JCA plays Nazareth at 7. The championship match is scheduled for Thursday night at 7.

BASEBALL: After setting the Frontier League’s single-season saves record in 2011 and being named to the All-Independent Leagues Team, Joliet Slammers closer Ryan Quigley will be getting an affiliated shot.

On Thursday, the Slammers announced they sold Quigley’s contract to the Diamondbacks. A former three-sport athlete for JCA, Quigley impressed Arizona’s staff with his slider and a 96 mph fastball.

Quigley, 26, was tabbed as the team’s closer early in the Slammers’ championship season, establishing a new league standard with 28 regular-season saves. He also saved five games in the playoffs. Overall, Quigley finished with 72 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings and ended up with a sterling 2.32 ERA.

“Coming off the championship, this was the next goal,” said Quigley, who is helping to coach the University of St. Francis in baseball and likely will play in Mexico before joining Arizona for spring training. “I’ll report to camp on March 1 and I couldn’t be more excited to show them what I can do.”