By Joe Ragusa
NORMAL – Normal Community fell to Cary-Grove 25-19 and 25-18 in the Class 4A consolation game Saturday night at Redbird Arena.
The Iron (30-11) finished the season in fourth place, a finish senior Micki Quakenbush said she’s satisfied with.
“I really felt like we were the underdogs and we had a lot to prove to people,” Quakenbush said. “I thought we did prove a lot to people.”
Quakenbush finished the match with six kills and eight digs. Senior Ginny Gerig had 16 digs and junior Rachel Maguire had 12 assists.
NCHS had 16 errors in the match compared to six for Cary-Grove (36-6). Iron coach Christine Konopasek said the team committed several of the same mistakes they made in semifinal loss on Friday.
“We made a significant number of errors that made it difficult for us to get into any type of system or flow,” Konopasek said.
Konopasek said she’s still proud of her team.
“They are a focused group who knows what it takes to be successful,” Konopasek said. “We’re really fortunate to have all of these girls who have seen and done what they have in the last, really, three years.”
This was the second-straight trip to the state final tournament for the Iron. The team finished in third place last season.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at joe.ragusa@cumulus.com.
