St. Charles East denies West Chicago
All season West Chicago coach Kris Hasty has been imploring her team to start fast, not to make things so hard on themselves.
The Wildcats enjoyed their best year in decades despite those slow starts but paid the price for them Tuesday.
St. Charles East built big leads in both games before holding off those Wildcat comebacks for a 30-28, 25-18 victory in the Class 4A Bartlett sectional semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Saints (27-10) will go for their fourth straight sectional title when they play a common foe No. 2 York (32-4) in Thursday night's championship. The Saints have defeated the Dukes the past two years in the sectional final.
Top-seed West Chicago ends its season at 30-8 4-8 in its final 12 games after a 26-0 start.
“That is kind of how we roll which is sad,” Hasty said. “We dig holes and try to get out. A lot of times we do but you can't do that against good teams like St. Charles. We never got in a rhythm tonight.”
Led by Sam Szarmach and Meghan Niski, the Saints came out swinging in Game 1. Both outside hitters had 5 kills in the first game, while Stephanie Camper's 2 aces led a strong serving effort to keep St. Charles East in a comfortable lead until the stretch run. The Saints finished the match with 9 aces.
“Tough serving tonight was good for us,” Saints coach Jennie Kull said. “That was one of the things we've been working on and staying aggressive.”
With the Saints ahead 23-16, Payton Bayless set Illinois recruit Julia Conard for a kill and sideout. Bayless then stepped to the line and served through two Kull timeouts for six straight points and a 23-23 tie.
“I think we let our mental part of the game slip a little bit,” Saints middle Nichole Lambert said.
From 23-23 to 28-28 both teams had two game points. Niski denied West Chicago's first game point with a kill and the Saints worked Lambert in the middle to win West Chicago's second game point.
Those two also came up with the kills on points 29 and 30 for the 30-28 victory, one that saw a variety of Saints step up.
“That's what has been so nice is we have a diverse offense, we can run a lot of players,” Kull said. “That was nice to see.
“It (winning Game 1) was crucial because they were getting momentum and you could see that. They know what to do with success. We didn't want to make them think they even had a chance. Kudos to them. They had a lot of heart and pushed as hard as they could.”
The Wildcats found themselves in an even bigger hole in Game 2 down 22-10. Once again West Chicago chipped back, this time with a 7-1 surge that included a kill and block by Northern Illinois recruit Emily Paschke.
Niski's kill got the Saints to match point. After a West Chicago sideout the Wildcats served long to end their season.
Paschke led West Chicago with 7 kills, Kathy Fletcher had 3 blocks and 5 kills and Bayless set 15 assists.
“Great year, holy cow we made history for West Chicago,” Hasty said. “We won the DVC which doesn't happen every year, every 31 years maybe. Some great things. Regional champs. We made our community proud, our school proud so I told the girls don't hang your head. It didn't happen for us tonight but we had a great year.”
Camper set 22 assists for the Saints with Niski (10 kills) and Szarmach (8) her two favorite targets. Szarmach also served 3 aces.
“We stayed composed, we try not to freak out in those situations and that's what pulls us through,” Szarmach said of Game 1.
“We got the job done but we are definitely going to have to play harder in our next match. We didn't do anything wrong but we expect more from ourselves. The standard is high.”