St. Charles East completes trifecta against Waubonsie Valley

Beating a quality volleyball team 3 times in the same season is always a tough task.

Beating that same volleyball team 3 times in 3 weeks is even tougher.

St. Charles East (29-8), however, was able to accomplish the feat without losing a single game, completing its third victory over Waubonsie Valley (24-14) in 22 days with a hard-fought, 25-21, 26-24 Class 4A Glenbard South regional

championship triumph in Glen Ellyn.

"Waubonsie is a good team and a well-coached team - that is what's tough," said Saints coach Jennie Kull, whose third-seeded team advances to Tuesday's Bartlett sectional semifinals against second-seeded Glenbard West.

"To play a good team three times is really difficult. You hate for that to happen because they did get closer."

Led by juniors Taylor Dunwell (6 kills, 3 blocks) and Caroline Cordes (5 kills, 2 blocks), the Warriors built leads of 14-9, 17-12 and 23-18 in the second game and had 3 chances to extend the match to a decisive third game only to be

turned away by the Saints.

Trailing 24-21, the Saints closed to within 2 on a kill by senior outside hitter Megan Schildmeyer (7 kills, 5 digs, 14 assists).

After a Waubonsie hitting error made it 24-23, the Saints tied the game on a combined block from 6-1 senior Mikaela Mosquera (6 kills, 6 blocks, 6 digs) and 6-2 junior Avery Macklin (9 kills).

Senior defensive specialist Chloe Rojas (9 digs, 2 aces) delivered a well-placed push kill to put the Saints ahead 25-24 before a Mosquera block eventually led to a match-ending, right-side kill from Macklin.

"At the end of that second game, she was screaming for the ball," Kull said of Macklin. "She has finally come into her own. Halfway through the season, she started playing for us and she has really been doing a great job on the right side."

Mosquera wasn't surprised by her team's resilience down the stretch.

"We knew we could push through," she said. "We were down a lot of points but collectively as a team we pushed through and finished strong."

St. Charles East also started strong, scoring the first 7 points of the opening game and taking leads of 9-1 and 16-8 before Waubonsie Valley enjoyed a 10-2 run and tied it at 18-18 thanks to successive blocks from Cordes.

From there, the Saints scored 7 of the last 10 points to secure the Game 1 victory.

"I thought if we had started a little stronger, Game 1 might have been a little different but we carried that momentum from Game 1 into Game 2," said Warriors coach Kristen Didier. "We had to close that (second) game out obviously. We had

a lot of opportunities but they have a very big block and a scrappy defense that makes it hard to put balls down.

"I told the girls that I felt they gave it everything they had," added Didier. "It's hard to say what would have happened in Game 3. It was frustrating to not get the chance."

The Saints also received key contributions from Alex Mazanke (4 kills), Anne Hughes (20 digs, 3 assists), Morgan Kull (15 assists, 3 digs), Kyla Augustine (3 kills), Caroline McKeighan (2 aces, 3 digs) and Emily Schildmeyer (1 kill).

St. Charles East has now won 9 consecutive regional crowns and 15 since 1997.

"This is the toughest year yet," said Kull. "I feel elated to be able to win this regional. We have a pretty doggone tough sectional, too."