St. Charles North's improved play continues against Geneva
A 25-20, 25-23 victory over visiting Geneva on Tuesday improved St. Charles North's record to 11-9.
Or as junior middle hitter Jill Stolzenburg sees it, 1-0.
The North Stars' up-and-down season hit rock bottom Friday at the Wheaton Classic with a loss to Naperville Central. That led to a fed up Lindsey Hawkins lighting into her team - and since then it has led to that team responding just as their coach hoped.
St. Charles North (11-9, 2-1) won all three of its matches Saturday at Wheaton and continued its improved play Tuesday against the Vikings (15-4, 1-1).
"We haven't really shown what our team can do because we are an amazing team and we have so many talented girls," Stolzenburg said. "We just haven't shown it yet. This is a new season for us. This is it. We are starting now."
Stolzenburg has played a key role. She contributed 7 kills and 3 aces Tuesday while teaming with Ashley Krage to give Geneva trouble in the middle. Those two middles have been much more effective the past few games since Miranda Coello returned in the back row to steady the North Stars' passing.
"We really had a hard beginning (the Wheaton Classic) and Hawkins kind of talked to us that we need to step up our game and everyone needs to be on the same page and we're all here and ready to go," Stolzenburg said.
Hawkins described that "talk" a little differently.
"Basically I reamed them out and told them you can either choose to turn around your season and move forward or you can be this team and this is all you have to give the rest of the season," Hawkins said.
"We weren't going to be the team that talks about it, We were just going to go do it. And they did it."
St. Charles North trailed just once in the opening game on a net violation on the opening point.
The North Stars built a 10-2 lead on 3 straight aces from Stolzenburg who just started jump-serving last week.
Those aces did more than put three points on the board for the North Stars according to Geneva coach KC Johnsen. They helped set the tone for the entire match.
"They hit some pretty good serves right off the bat and then us doubting our serve-receive and we are a good serve receive team - when you lose something you always count on, give North credit they capitalized on that and kept the pressure on," Johnsen said. "They were playing with a ton of confidence after that."
Back-to-back kills by Katie Fuerst and Stolzenburg put the North Stars ahead 20-11. Geneva clawed back to as close as 23-20 when Melissa Hanika put a ball away before the North Stars sealed Game 1 on Kim Juriga's kill and a Geneva hitting error.
"Things we have been working on this whole entire time are starting to come together and they have developed this new attitude that they are not going to be content with just being OK," Hawkins said. "They want to be great."
Game 2 couldn't have been much tighter with 12 ties. From a 20-20 deadlock, North took the lead on a Geneva hitting error, then kills by Riley Sullivan and Hanika put Geneva on top, 22-21. A Stolzenburg kill just in front of the back line and a Geneva error put the North Stars ahead 23-22.
Geneva tied the match one last time on Sullivan's 11th kill - a match high. North Stars setter Sarah Clarkson found Stolzenburg in the middle for a 24-23 lead setting up a poor Vikings pass on match point.
"Give North credit, they didn't let us get over the hump," Johnsen said. "It was a very frustrating night for us because we can play defense, serve-receive and hit the ball much more effectively than that. They took us out of our game, our hats are off to them. Just a rough night in the gym and North has a good, solid team."