St. Charles E. ousts Glenbard N.
St. Charles East notched another milestone in beating Glenbard North 25-13, 25-17 Tuesday night in the Class 4A Glenbard East regional for its 30th win this season.
“That’s nice but I don’t want it to be the end,” Saints coach Jennie Kull.
Second-seeded St. Charles East (30-6) will try to make sure it isn’t when the Saints play for the regional championship Thursday against No. 7 Batavia (23-13), a matchup pitting the last two Upstate Eight Conference River Division champions.
Kull used Tuesday’s match to try a mix and match different hitting and lineup options as she looks for the best combination on a talented roster.
“Every kid in our program has the ability to start,” Kull said. “We are excited about that. We feel strongly about the chemistry and everything that is going on.”
Senior middle Nicole Lambert got the Saints going with a block on the first point of the night.
A kill from Destini Wade put the Panthers (10-20) on the scoreboard. The Saints hit out to make it 2-2.
That turned out to be the only time in either game St. Charles East didn’t lead as it got a look at other options to use as the postseason goes on.
“We tried some different things,” Kull said. “We have a lot of options and want to make sure we can use all of them when we need them. I was pleased with what I saw. We just have to execute a little better. One of our goals is we have to execute better.”
Four-year starter Meghan Niski led the Saints with 14 kills, including the final three of the night in succession as she put away sets from Erienne Barry (25 assists, 2 blocks).
Lambert followed Niski with 7 kills and 3 blocks. Maisey Mulvey led with 6 digs.
“I think we just kind of mentally weren’t there. For the first game of the postseason it’s to be expected,” Lambert said. “If we can play like this and still win we have high hopes for the rest of the season.”
Wade led Glenbard North with 6 kills.
“We hung in there with them,” Glenbard North coach Jeremy Bradley said. “If we made a few less errors we had a shot to be even closer. They played way higher than what our seed (No. 18) was.”
“We doubled our conference wins this year. We made some strides in the program. We’re building. We’re trying to get better every year and I’m pretty pleased with how it went so far. Overall it was a great year.”