St. Charles N. sweeps Geneva to win regional
Jonathan Orech had no explanation for another one-sided St. Charles North performance.
On a senior-laden team, Orech was at a loss to offer evidence for the North Stars’ dominance over Geneva Wednesday night in an IHSA boys volleyball regional championship match.
“I did not think the spread would be this wide,” Orech said after scoring consecutive points to complete the top-seeded North Stars’ 25-13, 25-18 straight-sets victory over the Vikings in Geneva. “We were so focused for them the whole match. We never gave (Geneva) a shot.”
In a match with eerie similarities to the Upstate Eight Conference River rivals’ regular-season showdown, St. Charles North took command early in each game and never relinquished control in advancing to the Bartlett sectional.
St. Charles North (28-6) will meet fourth-seeded Wheaton North, which turned back league rival Glenbard North at South Elgin, in the first sectional semifinal on Friday.
Geneva had its season close at 21-12.
In their two matches this season, Geneva was able only to garner a single 1-point lead against the North Stars.
That came on the opening point of the second game after St. Charles North served the first point out of bounds.
But the North Stars’ Nic Cook would culminate a quick 4-point run for the North Stars, and the season-long dynamic between the teams followed a similar script.
Pat Misciewicz, who led both teams with 23 assists, had another ace for the North Stars to give St. Charles North a 10-4 second-game lead.
Serve-receive would prove to be a telling point the entire match; St Charles North routinely had mini-runs from its service line, while the Vikings were never able to sustain any extended points off their serve.
“Our serve-receive was spot-on tonight,” St. Charles North coach Todd Weimer said.
“We knew how to match up with them,” added Oreck, whose 5 kills belied his contributions from all over the court.
Geneva, desperately seeking a rubber game, never came closer than 5 points to St. Charles North during the second set.
Plagued by hitting errors, Geneva senior leader Mason Stierwalt attempted to single-handedly change the course of the match.
But it was to no avail as his team-high 6 kills were augmented only by a second-best total of three from Chris Parilli.
St. Charles North, meanwhile, had multiple options.
Just as he did in the teams’ regular-season meeting, St. Charles North senior Kevin Beach led both teams offensively.
Beach had back-to-back kills, two of his match-high nine for the night, to give St. Charles North a 20-12 second-game cushion.
“The matches we have played against Geneva have been our two best matches of the season,” Beach said. “We have been so together against them.”
“We don’t match up real well with them,” Geneva coach K.C. Johnsen said. “Give credit to (St. Charles North). That’s our job, to match up with the team we’re playing.”