St. Francis adds new challenge for 4A hopefuls

Welcome, St. Francis. Forgive the North Stars, Vikings, Saints and everyone else in the Class 4A East Aurora sectional if they want to be rude hosts.

Peg Kopec's volleyball power makes its debut this year in Class 4A, and the Spartans are going to provide quite a challenge to a sectional field that already was one of the best in the state.

St. Francis brings a 32-3 record into the sectional and earned the No. 1 seed over heavyweights like St. Charles North and Geneva.

The Spartans have won the last three Class 3A state titles.

“It's sad to me that the top six teams in the state right now are all in our sectional,” North Stars Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. “It makes it a really hard sectional. We know it's going to be a battle just to make it out of regionals. We're kind of excited for that too because we really relish these moments.”

West Aurora (23-11) has had a breakout year in its own right, winning the Upstate Eight Valley championship. The Blackhawks might have one of the first cracks at St. Francis; if they can beat Wheaton North in the semifinals they likely will play St. Francis in the regional final.

St. Charles East hosts a regional. The Saints (24-12) battled through injuries this year to earn the fifth seed and could meet No. 4 Neuqua Valley for a regional title.

The other half of the sectional could feature a third meeting between St. Charles North and Geneva in the sectional semifinals.

The Vikings (27-3) beat the North Stars (32-3) back on the first weekend of the year to win the Plainfield North Tournament. St. Charles North got its revenge with an Upstate Eight River victory that ended up deciding the conference championship.

There will be all kinds of talent on the court if they match up again, the Vikings' Wisconsin-bound Grace Loberg and UConn-bound Ally Barrett on the outsides slugging away with a trio of North Star Division I players: Claire Anderson (DePaul), Jaclyn Taylor (Creighton) and Daley Krage (Northwestern). Loberg missed most of both St. Charles North matches with mono.

“We would love to face them again,” Hawkins said. “I'm glad Grace is back and healthy.”

The North Stars head to the Waubonsie Valley regional and the Vikings will play at the Plainfield North regional.

The winner of the East Aurora sectional advances to the Bolingbrook supersectional against the Lyons sectional winner, another loaded field with No. 1 Benet and No. 2 Mother McAuley.

While the North Stars and Vikings battle it out with St. Francis at East Aurora, several other Fox Valley 4A schools will head to Hampshire.

That includes the No. 1 seed, Cary-Grove. Led by Bradley-bound setter Erin Olson, the Trojans could see the winner of No. 8 Huntley and No. 9 Jacobs in the Jacobs regional championship game Thursday.

“We have to work on minimizing our errors,” Huntley coach Karen Naymola said. “We have two young, inexperienced setters. It shows at time but they have improved a ton. We need to get our block a little stronger going into regionals.”

Cary-Grove (29-5) went 4-0 against those two schools in conference play. If the Trojans get past them again, they could see another familiar foe in the sectional — No. 4 Dundee-Crown could await in the semifinals and the No. 3 seed is Crystal Lake South (20-15), a potential sectional finalist if the Gators can get past the likes of No. 14 South Elgin, No. 5 DeKalb and No. 2 Prairie Ridge.

The Wolves are coming off a 25-22, 25-20 win over Cary-Grove Thursday night.

“As a coach I think there's about a million things we need to improve on,” Cary-Grove coach Patty Langanis said. “I'm happy with how we are keeping our composure when things aren't going well. I don't see us on a roller coaster emotionally. But I definitely would like to see us a lot more consistent offensively.”

The winner of the Hampshire sectional plays the winner of the Libertyville sectional where the hosts are the No. 1 seed.

Class 3A: Marv Leavitt won his 700th game Oct. 17, and the veteran coach will try to add a few more to it when the Rockets put their No. 1 seed in the Rockford Boylan regional on the line.

Burlington Central (30-5) will open with either Rochelle or Freeport and could meet host Boylan for a regional title.

Kaneland is in the same Sycamore sectional. The Knights were placed in the Plano regional and will open with Plano before a possible matchup with No. 2 Sterling in the regional final.

If Burlington Central and Kaneland both win regionals they will meet Nov. 3 in the Sycamore sectional semifinals. Other top competition in the sectional could come from LaSalle-Peru and Genoa-Kingston, who the Rockets defeated in a 3-set thriller last Thursday night to win the Big Northern title outright.

The sectional winner will advance to the Princeton supersectional against the Limestone sectional winner.

Aurora Central Catholic is the 10th seed in the Wheaton Academy regional and opens against the No. 8 host Warriors.

Rosary is the No. 2 seed in the same Glenbard South sectional. If the seeds hold the Royals' path to a sectional title would go through No. 7 IC Catholic Prep, No. 3 Nazareth and No. 1 Glenbard South.

The Royals (20-14) have played a grueling schedule this year made more difficult by playing well in several tournaments that has put them in the higher level matches Saturday. Libero Martha Konovodoff, middle Meegan Hart, setter Julia Gauthier and outsides Erin Burke and Molly Curley are all juniors.

“It's one thing to have easy matches and feel good and win but to be challenged that many times and to see what the best are like when you play, it will help us in regionals,” Rosary coach Rachel Fox said.

Class 2A: Aurora Christian and St. Edward are in the same regional at Somonauk. The Eagles are in a play-in game Monday against Somonauk trying to advance to play top seed Rockford Lutheran.

St. Edward opens against Byron in a 4-5 matchup.

Class 1A: Harvest Christian hosts a sectional, and the Lions hope to be playing in it if they can win two matches at the Faith Lutheran regional where they enter as favorites.

Mikayla Robinson (194 kills, 66 blocks), Amanda Cassidy (182 kills, 173 digs), Ellie Burzlaff (69 aces, 157 kills, 167 digs) and Hannah Murray (435 assists, 157 digs) lead the Lions.

Westminster Christian and Elgin Academy are in the same regional. Westminster Christian plays a quarterfinal game Monday against Alden-Hebron with the winner facing Harvest Christian while Elgin Academy meets Faith Lutheran in the other half of the bracket.

The sectional winner meets the Polo sectional winner in the Westminster Christian supersectional.