St. Charles E. wins sectional thriller
Conventional wisdom says an NFL team playing at home can count on about three points for their home-field advantage.
Turns out that's nothing compared to the boost St. Charles East's girls volleyball team gets at home.
In front of another huge orange-clad, boisterous crowd, the second-seeded Saints sent their fans home happy Thursday night by knocking off No. 1 York 25-21, 23-25, 25-22 in the championship match of the Class 4A St. Charles East sectional.
The Saints (33-6), who have now defeated York (32-4) in three of four sectional championship games the past four years, advance to of all places the York supersectional where they will play Glenbrook South at 6 p.m. Saturday with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
It was three years ago at the 2008 state tournament where a pair of Saints freshmen Meghan Niski and Maisey Mulvey helped the team win the state title. Now seniors, they are three wins away from — as Mulvey put it at the start of this season — getting “bookends” for their high school career.
“I knew it was going to be a battle tonight,” Niski said. “During that timeout (before the third game) Maisey and I said to our team, we have confidence in our team right now, I know we can come back and win the third game. It takes a whole team effort. I'm so proud of everyone right now.
“I didn't want my season to end on my home court like sophomore year (a supersectional loss to Cary-Grove). That was just a horrible feeling. Our goal this year is to get as far as we can go as a team.”
Sectional title No. 11 for the Saints took a pair of 3-game wins this week, first a comeback to edge St. Charles North on Tuesday and then a character-testing third game Thursday when it looked like the Dukes had all the momentum.
Which brought Saints coach Jennie Kull to the crowd's impact.
“They made a total difference,” Kull said. “They yelled when we needed support. They never gave up. They continued to rally. I give 10 points to them. I do. I give 10 points to them because they kept our momentum going, they kept our energy up, they kept us going.”
Kull, who joked the Saints students who make the trip to Elmhurst Saturday night will get extra credit, wasn't the only coach who had that opinion.
“I thought we played well but we aren't used to playing in front of a hostile crowd,” York coach Patty Iverson said. “That was a big difference. We don't do that at York.”
Serving errors also cost the Dukes. They missed 5 in Game 1 including one on game point — the start of an unusual night that saw all three games end on a service error.
St. Charles East picked up where it left off in Game 2, racing to an 11-2 lead and looking like it might make it a quick match. But the Dukes had other ideas, pulling even at 16 on one of the Saints' 4 hitting errors in the game. Melissa Deatsch also came alive with 4 kills in the second game.
St. Charles East was called for five various violations in Game 2 including one that again tied the score at 22 after the Saints had appeared ready to end the match leading 20-16.
York's Katie Gallagher pounded an errant Saints overpass to put the Dukes ahead 23-22, and a St. Charles East hitting and service error ended the game.
Losing that 11-2 lead in Game 2 brought back memories of the 2010 championship match when the Dukes overcame 9-point deficits in both games of a 25-23, 25-23 win.
“I reminded the seniors of that,” Kull said. “You remember last year what happened. You have to battle every point.
“They (York) are so well-coached. They are so aggressive and strong. There's no way to explain how proud I am of the kids.”
York led 9-7 early in Game 3. Mulvey had her hands full in the back row keeping hard-hit balls alive from Deatsch, Caroline Rose and Sam Schrenker, among others.
Mulvey finished with 13 digs to lead the Saints, including a miraculous one she passed to Erienne Barry (28 assists, 10 digs) who set Nichole Woods for a kill and a 19-16 lead.
“They were powerful hits that would kind of just take me back,” Mulvey said. “All their hitters were great hitters. I was able to just read it well with our great block set up and I was able to just get there and stick it out.”
The Dukes had one last surge to even the score at 20 when Schrenker blocked Niski. The Saints ended the match on a 5-2 run including the 18th and final kill by Niski and the Dukes' ninth service error of the night on match point.
“We just made too many. Missed serves were huge,” Iverson said. “They played very well, they were tenacious.”
Caitlyn Ballard added 9 kills for the Saints and Nichole Lambert had 5 blocks as she and Kathleen Dailey's work in the middle forced the Dukes to mostly work the outsides.
“We tried to take out their middles,” Dailey said. “We had a game plan for their middles. We scouted them a lot and figured out how to defend them.”
From Barry to Mulvey to Lambert to Ballard to Brooks to Sarah Dugan to Allison Manley, this tight-nit group anchored by 8 seniors had contributions up and down their lineup. But there also was no doubt who led the way, with Niski stepping up in each game including 8 kills in the deciding third game to finish with a season-high 18.
“Meghan Niski, her heart was bigger than any team that could have stepped in this gym tonight,” Kull said. “She wanted it. They weren't going to stop her tonight. She was on a mission tonight and just took over and everybody else followed.”