Girls volleyball: St. Charles East dominates Larkin

Whatever was ailing the St. Charles East girls volleyball team at the start of the season has certainly been remedied.

After opening with 2 straight losses to begin the season the Saints stretched their win streak to 7 on Wednesday night with a dominating 25-11, 25-10 victory at Larkin in Upstate Eight River action.

The win streak began over this past weekend with a first-place finish and 5 wins at the Conant invite and has continued with wins over Batavia and Larkin on back-to-back nights this week.

"We knew after those first two losses that something wasn't clicking," Saints' senior IIona Willsey said. "We had a big meeting to try and figure it out and we came away with that we were trying to do too much as individuals and needed to do more for the team. We've been doing that. We've been able to turn it around and our communication has been really good."

The team concept was very evident on Wednesday night as East spread the ball around against the Royals with McKenna Schaffer, Kyla Augustine, Klaudia Sowizral, and Willsey each getting 3 kills. The Saints dominated at the net with a 23-7 kill advantage.

"It was great to get everybody in and get everybody playing," East coach Jennie Kull said. "We've made some adjustments this past week and the kids have really stepped up and responded."

The Saints (7-2, 2-0) led from start to finish in both games. In Game 1 East jumped out to a 10-4 lead and then later pulled away with an 11-3 run. Willsey had a couple kills and an ace during the run. Morgan Kull closed out the game with a kill.

In Game 2 Sowizral sparked the Saints early on with a couple kills as they jumped out to a 10-2 advantage. The Saints continued to pull away. Augustine had a pair of kills down the stretch.

"I was really happy with our focus tonight," Kull said. "It's not always easy playing back-to-back nights, especially during the week. We were able to work on a couple of the things. I liked the way we worked the middle and served aggressively."

Rachael Garland and Willsey each had a pair of aces. Kyra Slavik had team highs with 5 digs and 9 assists.

After starting the season 3-0 Larkin has dropped back-to-back matches against Lake Park and East. The Royals were plagued by 25 unforced errors.

"I was happy with our energy tonight, but obviously we have a lot to work on," Larkin coach Harry Graack said. "Offense is the biggest thing. We have to do more at the net. And then we didn't make very good adjustments with our blocking schemes. The effort is there. We just need to execute better."

Mallory Boulton and Kayla Armour each had 3 kills for the Royals. Natalie Kofie had 8 assists.