St. Charles N. rallies by St. Charles E.

St. Charles North boys volleyball coach Todd Weimer likes to stress the importance of the block to his team at every opportunity.

“It is huge,” said Weimer. “That’s the first line of defense. We’ve been talking so much about the block this year.”

Weimer’s players obviously took his words to heart, as Bennett Gust, Sean Donlevy and Ryan Staudacher combined for 16 blocks to help lift the North Stars (10-9, 4-1) to a 20-25, 25-16, 25-22 victory over cross-town rival St. Charles East (10-14, 3-1) Tuesday night before a spirited crowd at St. Charles North.

Gust, who led the way with 7 blocks, and Donlevy (6 blocks, 2 kills) were especially effective at forming a wall at the net in the final two games.

“It’s timing,” said Gust, who credited Donlevy for padding his blocking statistics. “He (Donlevy) sets up great and is such a great blocker. He does a lot of the work, which makes it real easy on me.”

Gust and Donlevy were at their best when the North Stars needed it most with the match on the line in the second game.

Clinging to an 11-9 lead, a Donlevy solo block and combination block from Donlevy and Gust highlighted a 5-point run that helped extend the North Stars’ lead to 18-10.

The Donlevy-Gust duo was back at it in the third game, helping to spark a 10-1 start that featured 7 consecutive service points from Ryan Dal Degan.

“We were jumping out of the gym,” said Weimer. “We spend so much time on it (blocking), and they really stepped up tonight. Big hands, big arms, guys reaching over the net – it was pretty exciting.”

Serve placement also played a role in the North Stars’ ability to put up a roadblock at the net.

“We were trying to place our serve and force them to set where we thought they would set the ball,” said Weimer. “That worked out very well for us.

“If you can anticipate where the ball is going, you’ve probably got nine times out of 10 chances to win the point.”

Trailing throughout the early portion of the decisive third game, the Saints fought back behind outside hitters Tom Sheehan (10 kills), Imran Hasan (10 kills), middle hitter Josh Carnell (9 kills, 4 blocks), and setter Billy Russell (29 assists, 3 kills).

St. Charles East tied the game on two separate occasions – at 17-17 and 18-18 – before a kill from Donlevy keyed the North Stars’ final match-clinching surge and thwarted a serve from Saints libero Keaton O’Connor.

“We thought about that rotation where Keaton served a bunch of points at us and we were stuck in that rotation,” said Weimer. “The next time it came up, it was a close game at that point. It was a huge serve-receive moment for us but we were able to get it and Sean Donlevy hit a cross down the line.

“That was a huge turning point for us because we couldn’t afford to be stuck in that rotation again.”

St. Charles East won the opening game as several North Stars senior starters were benched for disciplinary reasons.

“When their (usual) starters came in, I think we were still thinking about that first game,” said Saints coach Kate McCullagh. “We just struggled to make that switch with them.

“We came back from a big deficit (in the third game), and I was very happy about that. But it’s a heartbreaker.”

Branden Hoerner led the North Stars with 9 kills and setter Steve Swanson added 15 assists.