St. Charles North keeps winning with balanced attack

St. Charles North displayed an impressive finishing kick Tuesday night in Roselle, something the North Stars would have preferred to save for another day.

The North Stars beat the Lancers 25-16, 27-25, using a long service run in each game to turn the match in their favor.

St. Charles North (14-7, 6-1) trailed Lake Park 20-16 in Game 2, rallied to take a 24-21 lead, then needed five match points to win.

"The one good thing about them is they are never going to roll over and let somebody completely take the game from them," North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "It's frustrating because we always seem to come out slow in the second game, but at the same token they fight hard and don't want to give up. I'm proud of them for that."

With Olivia Schneider serving, the North Stars scored seven straight to turn that 4-point deficit into a 23-20 lead, including two points on Schneider aces.

Lake Park battled back to tie at 24 and 25 before consecutive kills by Allie VanDril and Jen Ask ended the Lancers' hopes of forcing a Game 3.

VanDril and Ask led the North Stars with 8 and 6 kills, respectively.

"We kind of played laid back," Ask said. "We weren't aggressive and we weren't talking at all. We were fighting for the win when we should have played our hardest for a sure win."

Game 1 started as a dogfight, with 9 ties early, the final one at 11. That's when Miranda Coello rattled off 9 straight points to put the North Stars in control.

Ask had 3 kills in the spurt, VanDril another and Emma Headley blocked a ball, while the Lancers also had three hitting errors.

Coello added 10 digs while Jill Stolzenburg, Katie Fuerst, Ashley Krage and Karlie Giesler also came up with key shots, part of a balanced attack Hawkins has come to expect in her first year coaching the North Stars.

"We don't really have one stud on our team," Hawkins said. "We are very even across the board. That is good in my mind because we have a lot of weapons. We run a complex offense and people don't know what to expect sometimes because we have so many weapons."

Lake Park got a scare in the second game when setter Katie Grouzard went down and left the match. After working with the trainer for a few minutes, Grouzard returned and helped the Lancers nearly force the third game.

Sarah Drozdowski had 6 kills. "I thought we played very well," Lake Park coach Kate Clifton said. "We wanted to take them to three. They definitely gave St. Charles North a challenge."

Hawkins said she isn't sure what to expect for a sectional seed for her team at tonight's meeting after a season that so far has seen a lot of balance among the top teams.

"It seems so up in the air this year," Hawkins said. "Across the state it seems like that too. Teams like Cary-Crove are dropping games too. I really think it is very evenly matched across the state this year. We'll see a lot of good competition and are just hoping we bring our A game."