St. Charles North frustrated after loss at Bartlett
For their first Upstate Eight Conference match of the season, the Bartlett boys volleyball team impressed themselves.
The Hawks beat St. Charles North, 25-18, 25-21, Tuesday in Bartlett and improved to 5-2 overall.
"This was fantastic, this is the way we know how to play," Bartlett senior Sam Hillis said. "If we play like this every time, I don't know if there is anyone in the conference who can beat us.
"(Beating St. Charles North in two games) is impressive. They are a great team. They have some fantastic players, we just out-hustled them."
"The kids are getting their confidence up and played well," Bartlett coach John Breines added.
After 3 early ties in Game 1, Bartlett scored 5 consecutive points behind Hillis' serving and took the 10-5 lead that forced the North Stars to take a time out.
The North Stars scored back-to-back points after that, but were never able to take the lead.
Bartlett scored 4 of the final 5 points with the game ending on a St. Charles North serve going out of bounds.
"Our blocking really helped that game," Hillis said of Game 1.
In the second game, Bartlett jumped out to a 5-0 lead, thanks to Chris Guimon's jump-serving, St. Charles North errors and multiple kills from Scott Kuehn.
St. Charles North, however, chipped away at Bartlett's lead and eventually tied the game at 10.
The Hawks regained the lead, only to have the North Stars tally 6 consecutive points behind Bartlett errors, Pat Sullivan's serving, a kill from Sullivan and Tyler Hoerner and a block from Rusty Lavaja.
When the rally was over, the North Stars led 18-15.
Bartlett forced its way back and was able to tie the game at 18 and 19. After 5 straight points mainly behind Kuehn's serving, the Hawks captured the lead for good and ended the match on one of Chris Guimon's team-high 9 kills. He also finished with 7 digs.
"I was really happy with the way the guys fought back," Breines said.
St. Charles North (2-3, 1-2) was led by Brad Pevonka's 7 kills and 2 blocks along with Lavaja's 5 kills and 2 blocks.
"Right now, I don't feel like we are a very good team," St. Charles North coach Brad Mitchell said. "We are a better team than what we look right now, I know that for a fact. It's frustrating."
Girls soccer
Rosary 3, Montini 1: Laura Butz scored a pair and Christine Dickerson tallied once in the Royals' (1-2, 1-1) win over the Broncos.
Women's softball
Ruitenberg earns weekly award:ŒKelsey Ruitenberg (Geneva), softball pitcher for Roanoke College, has been named ODAC Player of the Week.
Last week, she batted 9-for-12 with 4 runs, 2 doubles, 3 homers and 10 RBI. She leads the team in homers (5), RBI (40), doubles (8) and slugging percentage (.667).
On the mound, Ruitenberg struck out 11 batters, while allowing 4 runs in 12¿ innings. For the season, she is 9-2 with a 2.51 ERA with 5 complete games and 52 strikeouts.
Roanoke is 24-6 on the season.
Stephens honored: Edgewood College senior shortstop Jennifer Stephens (St. Charles North) was named the Eagles' player of the week after hitting .500 in 14 plate appearances.
Stephens recorded a hit in all four games and currently has a 12-game hitting streak. She has now notched a hit in 15 of the team's 16 games.
In game two of Sunday's doubleheader against Aurora, Stephens was 3-for-4 at the plate, accounting for 3 of the team's 5 hits. For the week, she had a .714 slugging percentage while defensively she sported a .929 fielding percentage.