Saints, temps both sizzle

With an indoor game-time temperature of 94 degrees, the only thing that was missing from a beach volleyball setting at St. Charles East Tuesday evening was a little sand sprinkled on the court.

The Saints (1-0) survived the sticky conditions to emerge with a 25-16, 25-16 nonconference girls volleyball victory over Wheaton North (0-1) in the season debut for both teams.

Senior outside hitter Mattie Boyd, who led the Saints with 10 kills and a pair of blocks, didn't seem too bothered by the heat following the 45-minute match.

"We practice in here when it's even hotter than this -- it's no big deal," said Boyd.

The first game featured 9 ties -- from 8-8 through 16-16 -- before the Saints rattled off 9 unanswered points to win it, with the last 8 points coming off of Jacqui Seidel's serving.

"We've got a good defense and we served very well tonight as well," said Saints coach Jennie Kull. "I thought those two things really held us in the match because they have some good hitters."

Prior to the second game, the sauna-like conditions may have gotten to one of the Saints' players, as libero Alex Coello (3 digs) was unable to take the court.

"Alex got sick and left after the first game because of the heat," said Kull. "That's a little scary, but the rest of the team picked her up and did a great job."

With senior Raechel Striedl (5 digs) filling the libero's role, the Saints put together a 14-2 run to rally from a 14-11 second-game deficit and put away the Falcons.

"I was pleased with the fact that we were down but they were able to come back," said Kull. "And I liked our ball control today."

The Saints received solid contributions from junior setter Laura Homann (20 assists, 3 blocks, 1 kill), senior Julia Marks (3 digs), and sophomores Caroline Niski (8 kills, 4 blocks, 3 digs, 1 ace) and Seidel (3 blocks, 3 digs).

"We have a lot of seniors on our team who played together last year," said Boyd, "but the new girls have stepped up."

Amy Groesbeck (5 kills), Elizabeth Lee (4 kills) and Jesse Smith (10 assists) paced Wheaton North, which didn't help its cause with 8 service errors.

"Call it jitters, call it the first varsity game for most of the girls even though a lot of them are seniors -- we made too many mistakes," said Falcons coach Carole Kristensen.

"We've got a whole new crew out there with really only two (players) from last year's team. We've got to iron out some wrinkles."