Mother McAuley’s Lucy Maloney knows she plays a position that can be thankless at times.
If defensive players mess up, people notice. But the senior libero tries not to take things to heart.
“I’m not perfect, no one is perfect, we all make mistakes,” Maloney said. “The key is to bounce back. I think that mentally you need to be strong to come back and be better the next ball.
“That’s something I really had to work on.”
The Clemson-bound Maloney and her teammates will be working on bouncing back after the host Mighty Macs dropped a 17-25, 31-29, 25-17 decision to Assumption of Kentucky in Saturday’s championship match of the ASICS Challenge in Chicago.
McAuley (22-3) had match point six times in that marathon second game.
Assumption (26-4), one of the top teams in the nation according to multiple polls, also beat McAuley 20-25, 25-23, 25-16 in the teams’ annual Thursday match before the tournament.
Maloney went over the 1,000-dig mark on that night. Earlier in the season, the Mighty Macs also beat Assumption 25-18, 25-22 at a tournament in Kentucky.
All the while, Maloney has been doing a great job of keeping the ball from hitting the floor.
“Obviously, her play is so high level,” McAuley coach Jen DeJarld said. “But it’s also her passion. It’s her drive. It’s her competitiveness. It’s all of the intangibles that outweigh the tangibles.
“That’s what sets her apart.”
Before high school, Maloney split her time between softball and volleyball, but that has changed.
“I just love the pace of volleyball,” she said. “It’s a full team sport and you need everyone on the team to win. Every point matters. Every point means something to you.”
In November, the 5-foot-5 Maloney and Homewood-Flossmoor’s Ihuoma Ozoh, a 6-3 senior middle hitter, will be taking official visits to Clemson.
Maloney confirmed that playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference has an allure.
“I’m going to enjoy playing in the ACC,” she said. “It’s a grind, but that’s what I love. I watch ACC volleyball all of the time, and all of their liberos are amazing.”
One day, Maloney wants to be one of those ACC liberos. She loves the position.
“I think it’s kind of cool,” she said. “I want to make the dig and I want my hitters to get a kill so I get to celebrate. I wouldn’t want to play any other position.”
TV time for Hannah
Marist assistant coach Camryn Hannah joined two former Penn State teammates in surprising cancer-surviving coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley on the Today Show on NBC.
Schumacher-Cawley, a former McAuley star, helped guide Hannah and the Nittany Lions to a women’s volleyball national championship while battling breast cancer. She wasn’t expecting three members of the team to show up on the set.
“It was perfect — she was so surprised,” Hannah said of Schumacher-Cawley. “She cried, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry more than once ever.”
Hannah was also on hand when Schumacher-Cawley was presented with a Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the ESPYs.
“I told her she’s the best thing to ever happen to me,” Hannah said of Schumacher-Cawley. “We won a national championship. I got to go to the ESPYs. And I got to go to the Today Show.
“So many cool experiences because I know someone so awesome.”
Long ball
What happens when you get a slew of top teams across the country battling it out?
At the ASICS Challenge, it meant a lot of long matches.
In Saturday’s Gold Division, the matches for first, third and fifth place all went three games. A Gold consolation semifinal also went three. In the other semifinal, Skutt Catholic of Nebraska beat Notre Dame of Kentucky in two, but those scores were 30-28 and 26-24.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
