Saints win one for their coach
Down 8 points in Game 2 of its Upstate Eight Conference girls volleyball match against Neuqua Valley Tuesday night, St. Charles East needed an emotional lift.
The Saints, playing without their coach Jennie Kull for the first time that anyone could remember, had no trouble finding one.
St. Charles East rallied around its missing coach, overcoming deficits of 5-0, 12-4 and 17-10 to complete a 25-17, 28-26 victory over the Wildcats in St. Charles.
Kull's father passed away overnight Tuesday. Assistant Mike Bui filled in, and was on the phone with Kull seconds after the match ended to give her the good news about her team.
"The kids and I did it for her," Bui said. "It was a very spiritual game for us. We played well today, and it was all for her."
Junior Laura Homman ended the match with an ace on a serve that hit the net before finding a spot between a trio of diving Wildcats.
"I think a lot of us especially in the second game when we were down, our timeout was, 'Do this for coach Kull,'" Homman said. "We came back out with a lot of intensity."
St. Charles East didn't lead in Game 2 until earning a match point at 24-23. Neuqua Valley fought off 2 match points and then had a game point at 26-25 only to watch sophomore Caroline Niski's kill land barely in.
Mattie Boyd gave the Saints a 27-26 lead with a well-placed shot, setting the stage for Homman's match-sealing ace.
"With the lead we got right out of the gate it shouldn't have been point for point at the end," Neuqua Valley coach Kelly Simon said. "That's a position we put ourselves in."
The win keeps the Saints (16-6, 6-1) a game behind St. Charles North in the Upstate Eight while Neuqua Valley (16-5, 5-2) fell two behind.
"We just didn't get things going at all," Simon said. "We were just really slow. St. Charles East made a lot fewer errors than we did. We gave up way too many points on net violations and service errors and just didn't execute the way we needed to."
The Saints cruised in the opening game. They served 4 of their 7 aces, including a pair by Niski.
The Wildcats' last lead came at 8-7. Haley Streich blocked Neuqua Valley for a 23-16 lead, then took a set from Homman a minute later to put away game point.
"We served aggressive," Bui said. "And our defense played really well as well."
Paige Stevens and Nikki Federico led the Wildcats with 9 and 8 kills, respectively.
"Just really disappointing we didn't come out and battle harder than we did," Simon said. "Credit to St. Charles East for playing solid ball. It's a disappointing loss for conference, for going into sectional seed meeting tomorrow night. (I) just thought it was going to be a bigger fight than that."