Girls volleyball: St. Charles North sweeps Geneva again
It's a big week for St. Charles North's girls volleyball team, and the North Stars got it started on the right foot Tuesday at defending Upstate Eight Conference River Division champion Geneva.
Katie Lanz, GiGi Crescenzo and Abby Graham all had at least 6 kills, leading a balanced attack that a young Geneva team had no answer for in a 25-13, 25-14 North Stars victory.
St. Charles North (7-2, 2-0) plays DeKalb Thursday before a key Friday night match against rival St. Charles East that will go a long way toward deciding this year's River race.
Geneva (3-5, 0-1) fell to the North Stars for the second time this season having also lost at the Plainfield North tournament.
"I was a little concerned maybe our girls would take it a little easy or think they had it," North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "I know Geneva works hard every time they step on the floor. There were a couple times I thought the ball was going down and (Geneva libero) Payton (Bellano) got it up. They are just never going to let it die. I knew they were going to be out for blood and we needed to step up our game."
The North Stars did just that. They trailed briefly at the beginning of both games but quickly took command.
St. Charles North senior Cassie Johnson, of three setters who starts, delivered several big plays early. Her tip tied the first game at 3, she followed with a block to put the North Stars ahead for good, and her ace led to a timeout from Geneva coach Annie Seitelman trailing 12-6.
"They have a lot of versatility," Seitelman said. "They are athletic, they have a lot of ammo. Their defense is great. Kudos to them but a couple things we could have done better on our side."
Immediately after Seitelman's timeout, Crescenzo put a ball down as the North Stars kept rolling. Lauren Caprini's ace made it 21-11, and the North Stars closed out the game on Geneva's sixth hitting error.
St. Charles North only committed 2 hitting errors in the game while putting away 12 kills, mixing up its attackers.
"Our setters are doing a really good job adjusting to all the passing and I think it really gets the other team out of system a lot and helps us a lot," Crescenzo said.
Geneva led 5-3 in the second game on an ace and 2 kills from Molly Lambillotte, who led both teams with 9 kills.
Crescenzo tooled a shot for a 7-6 North Star advantage. Moments later, Lanz blasted a kill on the heels of a Lambillotte winner to keep the Stars up 11-8.
St. Charles North pulled away from there, ending the match when Graham passed to Lanz who lofted a cross-court set to Crescenzo for the kill.
"Our three setters spread the offense out well," said Hawkins, whose team has lost only to Benet and Sandburg. "No one had above 10 kills. It's pretty even. That's hard to stop when it's spread out evenly like that and you don't know which pin it's going to and we throw in our middle every now and then."
Crescenzo also led the North Stars with 3 aces and 11 digs, and Caprini added 6 digs.
Geneva continues to adjust to life after the graduation of star outsides Grace Loberg and Ally Barrett.
"We've got a lot of new faces," Seitelman said. "A lot of younger kids. We're working on getting those kids up to speed with varsity experience, getting them more match opportunities. And just working on team chemistry. We've got a lot of kids that don't play club together where years past those kids played year round together so they are used to one another. We are working on it in practice, trying a couple lineups, seeing what's working and what fits best for us.
"There's some growing pains. But it's early. Every match we are improving. It's unfortunate we see North this early in the conference season. We'd rather play them in October. We want to be playing our best volleyball at the end of October."