Reserves shine for St. Charles East
Jacqui Seidel, Caroline Niski, Meghan Niski - there's plenty of known stars on the St. Charles East girls volleyball team.
The Saints showed just how deep they are too Thursday in a 25-10, 25-15 Upstate Eight Conference win at South Elgin.
With the Mizuno Cup starting Friday night, Saints coach Jennie Kull gave some of her bench players a chance to shine against the Storm (7-16, 1-6).
Junior Samantha Szarmach did just that, stepping in for Meghan Niski in Game 2 with 7 kills. That included a stretch of 5 kills in 7 points to open up a 20-11 lead, all on sets from freshman Erienne Barry.
"She was setting really well," Szarmach said. "It was easy to play well. Wherever she puts them up I try to do my best with it."
Kull said she is lucky to have players she can turn to like Szarmach, who might be needed with a busy slate of matches the next two days. The Saints are the third seed in their Mizuno Cup.
"She (Szarmach) did a great job," Kull said. "The nice thing about Sam is she's a great utility player. Many teams aren't fortunate to have someone like that. She is able to play right side, the outside, back row. She's such a versatile player."
St. Charles East (18-3, 7-1), which held off Neuqua Valley 27-25 in the third game Tuesday night, needed no such drama Thursday. Barry served the first four points, with Seidel setting the tone with a rocket spike down the line and then a block kill.
The Storm stayed closer in Game 2, taking their only lead of the night 8-7 before the Saints ended the match on a 18-7 roll.
Seidel (6 kills), Meghan Niski (6 kills), Kathleen Dailey (4 kills) and Caroline Niski (4 kills) all contributed to the Saints' attack. St. Charles East also served 8 aces.
"We played really well, consistent," Szarmach said. "We worked really hard yesterday in practice on defense. We definitely played better than our last match."
Allyssa Krause led South Elgin with 3 kills. Jasmine Kuro added 2 kills and Katelyn Stonecipher 5 digs.
"Tonight it wasn't like we made a bunch of errors," South Elgin coach Joni Melahn said. "St. Charles East definitely earned their points tonight. St. Charles East is such a strong program. We never folded, we never gave up."
South Elgin was coming off a 3-1 showing at Conant's tournament last week for third place. Melahn likes the way her team is playing heading into the stretch run.
"We are mentally right where I want us to be," Melahn said. "We're not breaking down in the middle of matches and letting teams get a lot of runs on us."