Stolzenburg puts a jump into St. Charles North's season

Watching Jill Stolzenburg rattle off ace after ace against Geneva on Tuesday night, it appeared the St. Charles North junior must have practiced her jump serve for years.

Turns out it had only been a few days - and her dad deserves much of the credit for the success.

"My dad was like, 'you need to step up your game,' because we weren't very strong in the beginning of the season," Stolzenburg said. "A lot other good players if you watch anyone all have a good topspin jump serves. It's fun and it worked."

A couple of her aces caught Geneva completely off guard as the Vikings let them drop without even making an attempt.

"I was a little bit scared because they looked out but they were in," Stolzenburg said.

St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said it is indeed hard to perfect a jump serve but Stolzenburg has a couple factors working in her favor in being a quick study.

"It is a very hard skill to learn but because she is so good at keeping the ball in front of her, she has such a good front row attack we said 'let's try it,'" Hawkins said. "And she tried it and it was working from the beginning so we said 'let's keep going with this.'

"It's only going to get better because we just started it. She is really going to work on perfecting it. You saw a couple when she kind of miss-hit it and even those are still decent. She's going to get a lot better at it."

Stolzenburg's 3 aces and 7 kills in a win over Geneva on Tuesday followed an all-tournament performance last weekend at the Wheaton Classic with 29 kills and 13 blocks.

"She's been a powerhouse for us," Hawkins said. "She is just on a roll right now. We are just trying to get her the ball as much as possible because she is putting it away and hitting smart shots. The serves she provides for us are really good too."

Hawkins said one reason for Stolzenburg and Ashley Krage getting more looks in the middle has been the return of libero Mirando Coello. She returned to the lineup last week and had 50 digs during the Wheaton Classic and 13 more Tuesday against Geneva.

"Our passing and defense is so much stronger than it was at the beginning of the season which is awesome because between Jill and Ashley Krage we have two solid middles," Hawkins said. "We want to get them the ball as much as possible."

And Stolzenburg wants to be as aggressive as possible starting with her new jump serve - even if it only took three practices.

"I've always kind of wanted to do it so I've always messed around with it," Stolzenburg said. "It's hard but if you watch and really study it and look at the form you can get it down and it's a good serve."