Warriors deny Saints title

Kristen Stuart, the Waubonsie Valley girls volleyball coach, unveiled a surprise after her Warriors beat St. Charles East for a share of the Upstate Eight Conference title Tuesday.

The first-year coach told her team the Warriors haven't won or shared the conference title since 1996. The team erupted in a loud cheer.

In return, the Warriors dropped an even bigger surprise on Stuart after they beat the Saints 25-23, 23-25, 25-19 -- they dumped cups of water on the coach, celebrating the big win.

"It's a big deal, and we are all proud," Waubonsie Valley's Nicole Salmon said. "This is her first year, so it's great we won conference for her."

"I think (Stuart) has done a nice job in her first year," St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull added.

With the win, Waubonsie Valley (24-9, 9-1) will share the conference title with St. Charles North, which has won or shared it for the past four years. The North Stars' lone conference loss this season was to the Warriors last week.

"It's really exciting," Stuart said. "It's a big deal for us."

This is the second time the Warriors beat the Saints in 4 days. They beat them in 3 games with similar scores Saturday at Glenbard East's Autumnfest Invite.

In Game 1, the Saints (24-11, 8-2) led by as much as 11-4 after a Mattie Boyd kill, but the Warriors scored the next 5 points to get itself back in the game. Once they tied the game at 12, the Warriors never let the Saints lead again, despite two more ties with the last one at 23. A Katrina Boryc kill ended the game.

St. Charles East, which was celebrating Senior Night, led the first half of Game 2 until the Warriors tied it at 12. There would be 8 more ties after that, but after a Waubonsie Valley violation, the game ended on another one of Boyd's kills.

There were 4 early ties in Game 3, but after an 8-8 knot, the Warriors took off and kept their distance from the Saints.

The Warriors led by as much as 22-15 after a Cindy Cavanagh kill and capped the match with a block from Alana Jones.

"Bottom line, they came to play," Kull said. "They made adjustments, and we didn't. They did the things we needed to do and we didn't make the adjustments we needed to. They stepped up their intensity and we didn't. I can't take anything away from them -- they were the better team on the court tonight."

"We served well, we started to get them out of their system and…we fought back there at the end," Stuart added on Game 3.

The Warriors' kills were spread out, as Joslyn Drew and Salmon each had 9. Cavanagh finished with 7. Setter Kassie Kadera totaled 34 assists.