Waubonsie slides past St. Charles North
It's easy to see why Waubonsie Valley senior middle Ally Simmons calls the slide her favorite play.
Simmons and setter Meagan Mooney executed the play to perfection four times in Game 1 Thursday night in St. Charles. That was just one of the things the Warriors did well in a 25-13, 25-19 victory in the Upstate Eight Conference crossover match.
Simmons finished with 5 kills and 4 blocks, just behind teammates Martha Stewart and Lisa Studnicka with 6 kills each. Setter Meagan Mooney delivered 16 assists including the perfectly timed sets to Simmons.
"Me and Meagan's connection on that has been a lot better," Simmons said. "We've been working on it in practice a lot. I love it. It's my favorite. I yell, 'Meagan, Meagan, Meagan' and she just knows or I yell 'push.'"
Waubonsie Valley (18-8) never trailed in Game 1, scoring the opening point on the first of the Simmons-Mooney slide connections.
"It's tough to defend for any team, when other teams run it against us it's hard to defend as well," Waubonsie Valley coach Kristen Stuart said. "Ally is really good at it. It has to be fast and the person hitting has to be fast to split the block."
The Warriors, coming off a third-place finish at their own Warrior Blast invite last weekend, also showed their balance. Their first four kills came from four different players to take an 11-5 lead. The North Stars never got closer.
St. Charles North (12-9) played better in Game 2. The North Stars held their last lead at 7-6, getting kills early in the game from Kim Juriga and Ashley Krage.
But the North Stars hurt themselves with five net violations and one rotation error that kept them from fully capitalizing on the Warriors missing five serves.
"Really tight balls we were passing tight to the net and our setters had to throw it up," North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins explained on all the net violations. "It had a lot to do with them (Waubonsie) taking us out of our game."
Simmons' last slide kill got the Warriors to match point at 24-19. Stewart hammered a ball off the North Stars block and out of bounds to finish the game.
The Warriors also held a 5-2 advantage in aces, two coming from Stewart.
"We knew they (St. Charles North) would be pumped up, it's their senior night and they had a great crowd," Stuart said. "I was proud of the way we handled ourselves keeping control of the match."
Senior Jill Galovic led the Warriors with 13 digs; Miranda Coello topped the North Stars with 14.
Juriga paced the North Stars with 6 kills. Krage and Katie Fuerst added 3 each. Lauren Metts and Sarah Clarkson split the setting duties with 7 and 6 assists, respectively.
"They (Waubonsie) were a really solid team, they threw a lot of weapons at us," Hawkins said. "They moved the ball around really well and took us out of our game. We are a team of momentum and we didn't control our momentum."