Rams can't overcome St. Charles E.
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."
-- Henry Perez
Addison Trail regional:ŒIt was not the way Jenny Pokorny and her Geneva volleyball teammates envisioned their season ending.
But what York lacked in convention was surely compensated in execution.
In a classic sectional-complex match pitting No. 4 versus No. 5 for the Class 4A Addison Trail girls volleyball regional championship, the Vikings ran out of steam.
With the season on the line and the Dukes holding a late 8-point lead in the decisive third game Saturday afternoon in Addison, the Vikings made one last-ditch stand.
Pokorny, the Vikings' four-year senior starting setter, had the last of her match-high 29 assists, feeding Lauren Wicinski with back-to-back assists as part of the Geneva 7-1 run.
Kelsey Augustine added an ace in the run for Geneva, and consecutive hitting errors by York sliced the Vikings' deficit to a more manageable 2.
But it was not to be for Geneva as fifth-seeded York, following its script of dropping its first game before rallying to win the final two, advanced to the Lake Park sectional with an exhausting 16-25, 25-22, 25-22 victory.
York (24-22), which rallied 21-25, 25-10, 25-15 over Willowbrook in its semifinal match, advances to meet top-seeded Wheaton Warrenville South, which defeated Batavia 25-15 and 25-7 at Bartlett. They will play at 5 p.m. Thursday at Lake Park.
The Vikings, who turned back Addison Trail 25-11, 25-15 to reach the championship match, concluded their year at 27-10.
"(The Dukes) came out really hard (in the third game), and it seemed like we weren't ready," said Pokorny, who added 7 digs and 4 blocks against York. "We fought hard. We did miss a couple of clutch serves."
The Vikings never trailed nor were they tied in capturing the first game, using a 5-1 game-opening run to seize control.
Rachel Urbelis and Augustine were the prime beneficiaries of the Pokorny-directed Geneva attack, and the latter ended the first game with one of her 9 kills.
Twenty-one more points elapsed in the second game before York had its first lead of the afternoon, and the inspired play of junior Brianne Graunke turned the tide for the Dukes.
The middle blocker restored confidence to York with a series of momentum-changing blocks for kills that enabled the Dukes to break the last of a dozen second-game ties.
Meghan Mullaney gave York a 24-22 lead with a vicious kill, and a rubber game became certain on a Geneva hitting error.
"(Graunke) is definitely the best player on our team," said York coach Patty Iverson. "She does an incredible job blocking."
York scored the first 4 points of the third game, and Geneva was never able to get back into the match, falling behind 23-15 before its last-ditch run.
"We knew (a potential match with York) was going to be a battle," said Geneva coach KC Johnsen. "We kind of dug our heels in."
Wicinski finished with a match-high 12 kills; Urbelis concluded her career with 11 kills and 11 digs.
Host Addison Trail ended its season at 14-22; the Blazers' Casey D'Ambrose, Robyn Hart and Marissa Liberio led the squad in its straight-games defeat against the fourth-seeded Vikings.
"Geneva has a strong offense, and we tried to prepare as best we could but couldn't pull through," said Addison Trail coach Jill Petrbok.
For No. 11 Willowbrook, Josie Hopkins led the offensive attack with 6 kills, and Stacie Bower was the defensive spearhead with 9 digs.
"We couldn't get it all together at the same time," said Willowbrook coach Sue Bower. "We lost our intensity (after the first game)."
-- Kevin McGavin
Waubonsie Valley regional:ŒAfter blowing out Waubonsie Valley 25-14 in the first game, Naperville North looked like it would cruise to an easy Class 4A Waubonsie Valley girls volleyball regional title in Aurora.
Too bad the host Warriors had a different idea.
Unfortunately for Waubonsie Valley (24-10) it didn't have enough in the tank to force a third game, dropping the second game 31-29.
The Warriors jumped out to an early 6-1 lead in the second game and led for most of the way; the Huskies (33-4) didn't tie it up until 21-21. The Huskies eventually grabbed their first lead of the second game at 26-25.
The Huskies grabbed the match on back-to-back errors by the Warriors.
"We knew we would get their best effort tonight," Naperville North coach Jennifer Urban said. "We knew they would have a lot of energy in the second game because they knew they had to win the second game or their season would be over. It was a nice game for us because we were able to show how composed we could be."
In the playoffs some teams would prefer to have quick matches early on to make sure they would be fresh later on in the state tournament, but the Huskies didn't mind.
"I like matches like this one," Naperville North outside hitter Colleen Ward said. "I don't like them so much that I wish we would always have them, but it is nice to know we can win tough matches. We expected a match like this though."
Waubonsie Valley coach Kristen Stuart said there was something worse than playing the No. 1 seed.
"I hate this format," Stuart said. "We had a tough match against Providence early in the day and then we had 15 minutes between matches. It's tough because you have to prepare for two teams during the week of practice as well. I hope that will change in the future."
Ward had 19 kills and Christine Wu had 9 digs and 2 aces in the win.
"Colleen Ward is just amazing," Stuart said. "She is a very tough player. Wu came up with some amazing digs to keep the ball alive on a lot of possessions. She is just as amazing as Ward is."
Joslyn Drew had 10 kills and Stephanie Demos had 10 digs in the loss.
"We are so excited for the sectional because we get to play on our home court," Naperville North outside hitter Audrey Wilson said.
-- Jason Watt
Bolingbrook regional:ŒDefensive specialists like Naperville Central's Jill Fields don't typically draw a crowd of reporters after a match. It's the heavy hitters at the net who put away the kills who usually get most of the attention.
But when Fields and teammates such as Alyssa Bauer and Chelsea Thurlby come up with stellar defensive plays in the back row, it hard to ignore them. Their steady play and that of setter Megan McMahon is key to the Redhawks' success.
They proved that again Saturday with a 25-17, 25-22 victory over Plainfield North to capture the Class 4A Bolingbrook girls volleyball regional championship.
"We stress in practice that defense wins championships," said Naperville Central coach Brie Isaacson. "As great is it is to see the final kill, there is a lot that happens to get them that opportunity. Defensively, Jill, Alyssa and Chelsea really stepped up to allow our hitters to be so successful."
The Redhawks (33-4) feature perhaps the two top outside hitters in the state, Rebecca Heath and Emily McGee. They played on the Naperville Central team that won the state title two years ago and know what it takes to get it done in big matches. The duo was particularly active against the Tigers (29-6), putting away 12 kills apiece. Heath, a senior, seemed to elevate her game to a new level at times.
"We came out with so much energy and just wanted it so bad," Heath said. "(The postseason) is the most exhilarating part of the season. This is what I play for."
"Rebecca is really strong outside," Issacson said. "The other girls rely on (Heath and McGee). (Heath) raised her game when she needed to and got some big points."
Heath said the offense's proficiency had to do with the play of the defensive specialists, good passing and the heady setting by McMahon, a senior who dished 31 assists.
A turning point early on in the match came in game one when Plainfield North held a slim 12-11 lead. The Redhawks got the ball on the serve and Fields served 9 straight points, including an ace, to give them a 20-11 advantage. The junior made a stellar dig during that run, striking the ball just right so that it shot back over the net for a kill. Fields made another nice dig when she just got enough of her left hand under the ball to bump it up for a teammate to keep it in play. She finished with 8 digs for the match.
"We back each other up other," Fields said when asked how she makes these big plays. "I do this in practice."
In Game 2 the Tigers pulled within 21-19 behind the hitting of Amber DeWeerdt and Kylee Baker. Isaacson called timeout and Naperville Central refocused to win its fourth consecutive regional championship.
"Brie told us we were going to win this game and we needed to understand that," Heath said. "That was it."
-- Brian Pitts
Class 3A Aurora Central Catholic regional:ŒTop-seeded St. Francis (34-3) romped to a 25-3, 25-6 victory over the 13th-seeded host in the semifinals, then defeated eighth-seeded Glenbard South 25-21, 25-7 in the final.
In the two wins for the Spartans, Megan Barnicle totaled 14 kills and 6 blocks, Kelsey Robinson also had 14 kills, Michelle Kocher collected 40 assists and Meghan Matusiak served 24 points, including 6 aces.