Saints super again

St. Charles East and its triumvirate of setter Laura Homann and junior hitters Jacqui Seidel and Caroline Niski are returning to familiar territory.

At the Class 4A York girls volleyball sectional final Thursday night in Elmhurst, the Saints' junior standouts had 11 kills apiece; the overwhelming majority were off sets provided by Homann, who led both teams with 29 assists.

The result was a straight-games 25-22 and 25-19 victory over the host Dukes, sending St. Charles East (35-4) to the Elgin supersectional on Saturday afternoon to face Crystal Lake South (32-7), which defeated Huntley at Prairie Ridge.

York closed out its season at 30-9.

St. Charles East will be searching for its second consecutive appearance to the state finals in Normal after placing third last season.

"Last year it was kind of unexpected," Seidel said. "It's a completely different feeling this time. We had our game plan to play aggressive the whole match. (Homann) makes great decisions and makes it easier for us."

St. Charles East faced its first deficit of the postseason when York scored 5 of the first 8 points in the opening game.

But the Dukes' early advantage was short-lived.

Seidel broke the last of six first-game ties with a kill, and St. Charles East forged ahead 13-10 when Meghan Niski delivered another Homann feed.

York clawed to within one on two separate occasions, but Seidel had back-to-back points for St. Charles East to restore the Saints' 3-point advantage.

York made another run to slice its deficit to a mere point, but Seidel had a critical ace to give the Saints a 22-19 lead.

St. Charles East then closed out the first game on a trio of York hitting errors.

"When you play a good team, you have to play just as hard as they do," said York senior Brianne Graunke, who led the Dukes with 8 kills and 4 blocks. "We had too many mistakes at the end of the first game. We dug ourselves a hole and had to get out of it."

The second game belonged to Caroline Niski.

"I kind of struggled in the first game," Niski said. "You're always going to have nerves in a match like this."

But Niski more or less owned the left side of the Saints' front row.

Seidel had four straight service points to give St. Charles East a quick 5-0 lead, and Niski made the most of her front-row rotation.

With its lead reduced to 6-3, Niski fired off 5 kills in a 6-point sequence; all of the winners were supplied by Homann.

"The second game I wanted to come out and make a difference," Niski said. "I definitely felt as though I contributed to help the team. It's an awesome feeling (to return to the Elite Eight)."

Haley Streich and Meghan Niski, who closed out the match off a Seidel feed, had 6 kills each for St. Charles East.

The Saints owned three double-digit leads in the second game.

"We didn't play a solid game," York coach Patty Iverson said. "(St. Charles East) didn't make a lot of mistakes."