Wheaton North gets edge on West Aurora

The Wheaton North and West Aurora girls volleyball teams were pretty similar going into Tuesday night's Class 4A St. Francis regional semifinal.

The Blackhawks were seeded eighth in the Bolingbrook sectional, the Falcons ninth. Both squads had 20-plus victories.

So it should come as no surprise that it was a battle from beginning to end with the Falcons edging West Aurora 25-22, 25-23.

The Falcons (21-13) advance to play the top-seeded host Spartans in the regional final at 6 p.m. Thursday. St. Francis downed West Chicago 25-7, 25-13 in Tuesday's first semifinal.

"It's been our goal since the start of the season to get to the regional championship. We wanted it and that's why we kicked it up a notch," said Wheaton North senior Gracie Tiesman, who led the Falcons with 11 kills and 2 aces.

The Falcons needed to. West Aurora (23-12) led 10-5 in Game 1. Then Wheaton North proceeded to go on a 10-4 run to earn its first advantage of the game at 15-14. Later the team retook the lead twice and eventually prevailed.

"We pulled it together and realized that we had to do it as a team," senior Abby Tiesman said of her team's comeback in Game 1.

Wheaton North led from the start in Game 2 and led 11-7 before West Aurora's Jordyn Poppen took over serving. Three aces, kills by Sidney Fedor and Elizabeth Wiet and a double hit and a hitting error by the Falcons put the Blackhawks ahead 14-12.

Poppen led her squad with 6 aces and 6 kills.

West Aurora led by 4 twice later but could not hold those leads.

A kill by Abby Tiesman tied the game at 21-21. Gracie Tiesman took over serving and three hitting errors and a net violation by the Blackhawks gave the Falcons a 24-21 lead.

Wheaton North committed a hitting error to pull West Aurora to within 24-22 and give the Blackhawks the ball back. The Falcons made another hitting error to cut their lead to 24-213. But a serving error by West Aurora clinched the game and match.

"We just needed to get into our groove. We hadn't done what we have practiced," said Falcons coach Carole Kristensen. "We've been blocking really well. We need to be a little more crisp with our passing."

West Aurora coach Kevin Mortlock said his team played a very good match against another very good team and the margin of victory was very small.

"Going into tonight, we wanted to make less than 2 serving errors against Wheaton North. We had none in Game 1 and just 1 in Game 2. We had just four unforced errors in Game 1 and 4 in Game 2. We played well. Wheaton North played a great match," he said.

Wheaton North has not faced St. Francis this season.

"After practice tomorrow we'll carry great energy into Thursday," said Falcons junior Kailyn Williams.