Beecher’s Abby Shepard arrived to the party just in time.
After spending two years playing basketball at Parkland, she made a last-minute decision to play at St. Francis in Joliet.
“Things fell into place pretty late in the summer,” she said. “I committed a few days before school started and the cards fell, and it really worked out well.”
The Saints and Shepard wrapped up a successful season on March 15 when they bowed out of the NAIA National Tournament in the second round after a 73-48 loss to top-seed Dordt in Sioux City, Iowa.
Shepard scored seven points in the loss for the Saints. They opened the tournament the previous day with an 89-79 win over Rocky Mountain and she scored 14.
The Saints went from 11-18 last season to 25-8 this year. They finished third in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and took second in the CCAC Tournament to receive a national bid.
“It’s been a turnaround season,” Shepard said. “I wasn’t with the team last year, but everyone is proud of how far we’ve come.
“A lot of teams at the beginning of the year ranked us like seventh or eighth — really low in the conference. We were able to beat everybody in the conference at least once. We turned it around and proved people wrong who doubted us.”
On Feb. 19, Shepard broke the program record with 11 3-pointers in a 127-46 league win over Calumet College. Shepard scored 33 points in 31 minutes in that game.
“The shots were just dropping for me,” she said. “It was on our home court and I was feeling it. I never imagined I could do that. Eleven 3s is pretty crazy.
“I hit about five or six in the first half and they told me what the record was. Coach left me in, so I was able to get there.”
St. Xavier, which featured Peotone’s Madyson Kibelkis, lost in the first round of the national tournament March 14, 73-63 in overtime to Marian in Indianapolis.
Manteno takes third in state
Manteno Middle School’s seventh-grade girls volleyball team finished third in the Illinois Elementary School Association Class 3A tournament, which wrapped up March 15 at Warrensburg-Latham.
Manteno (24-3) fell 20-25, 25-23, 25-20 to eventual state champion Williamsville in the semifinals and recovered to beat Lawrenceville Parkview 25-22, 25-11 in the third-place match.
For the tournament, Siena Belisle had 27 service points and eight aces. Emma Thompson had 21 points, Rylenn Benoit 20, Finley Toepper 13 and Sloane Cann 12.
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