Focused Saints advance to sectionals

Regional volleyball finals tend to be tight contests where each vital point can be difficult to come by.

St. Charles East expected that from its championship match against regional host Glenbard East.

But as accustomed as the Saints have become to this sort of postseason battle, this time the familiarity extended beyond the action on the floor. Coaches Jennie Kull of St. Charles East and Glenbard East's Marci Maier go back a ways.

"Marci was the first setter I ever coached when I was down at Champaign (Central), and she's done an outstanding job with her team," Kull said. "We knew they'd be tough."

Saturday afternoon, the teacher's team got the better of her former student's team as the Saints won a pair of see-saw games, 25-18, 25-20 to win the title and move on to the Lake Park sectional.

St. Charles East will play St. Charles North at 6 p.m. Thursday, with the winner playing either Wheaton Warrenville South or York.

The tone for the entire match was set in Game 1 as the Saints established a lead, but couldn't shake the Rams.

"We traded points back and forth, but it was our intensity that won that game," St. Charles East's Mattie Boyd said.

The Saints gutted out the 7-point win with defense, passing and by limiting their mistakes.

"We've talked a lot of about finishing games," St. Charles East's Jacqui Seidel said. "Our goal today was to stay strong the whole time."

Despite dropping the opener, Maier was confident her team could overcome some of its struggles from Game 1, including adjusting to the Saints' aggressive and skillful serving.

"I knew if we could eliminate some of our errors, we'd be in the game," Maier said. "It's do or die here, so we weren't going to give up until the last point."

Despite the Rams' adjustments, Game 2 bore a strong resemblance to its predecessor as the Saints jumped out to a 9-3 lead.

Seidel battled up front against Glenbard East's Amanda Peterson and Ashley Farrell, and though the Saints were never able to take control of the net, they kept finding ways to score.

"We saw that they had a good block, but we can adjust to that," Seidel said. "We mixed it up, hit around it, and they didn't know what to expect."

After Laura Homann's tip kill brought the Saints to within a single point of closing it out, the Rams (19-18) responded by scoring the next two, before Boyd's perfectly placed shot ended it.

"We've been practicing that all season," Boyd said. "Instead of giving it air, I just hit it where the coaches taught us to."

The Saints (25-12) advanced to the final by beating South Elgin earlier in the day, 25-13, 25-7, thanks in part to Jordan Jones' 4 aces in Game 1.

"From now on everybody is playing to get to that next game," Kull said. "Right now, we're very determined and focused."