Providence tops Streator for 11th straight Class 3A regional volleyball title
Mark Chen is a seasoned sports journalist with a degree from the University of Chicago and over 6 years of experience covering club sports and recreational activities in the Naperville area. Prior to joining Naperville Current, he wrote for the Naperville Sun, where he leveraged his strong relationships with coaches and athletes.
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After securing a close opening-set win in Thursday night’s Class 3A Crete-Monee Regional championship match, the subsectional top-seeded Providence volleyball team got a huge lift from senior libero Maddie Johnson against No. 5-seeded Streator.Johnson reeled off 14 straight point-earning serves – four via aces – to begin the set, and the Celtics went on to post a 25-22, 25-7 triumph over the Bulldogs. “You don’t expect serve runs like that, but you dream about them,” said Johnson, who finished with five aces and 16 service points. “We work a lot on our serving; it can be a big weapon for us. The key for me is trying to go completely blank in my mind, not think about anything and just serve. After the first couple of serves [to start the second set], I just really found a great rhythm and was able to keep my mind clear. “I had a few aces during that, but we also were really running a very quick and smooth offense. The first set was a tough one, but I feel like once we were able to win i