St. Charles E. beats Batavia again
When the postseason comes around there's one phrase a team never wants to hear: “You are going home.”
Except for St. Charles East's volleyball team. Home is exactly where they wanted to get.
After their second win over Batavia this season, this time 25-14, 25-15 Thursday night in the Class 4A Glenbard East regional championship game, home is where they will be.
The second-seeded Saints (31-6), now with 24 regional championships including six in a row, will go for their 11th sectional title next week, and they will do it on their home court at St. Charles East. They open with No. 6 St. Charles North Tuesday, with the winner playing either No. 1 York or No. 5 West Chicago for the sectional championship Thursday.
“When you are going back to your house to play you want to make sure you win this one,” Saints coach Jennie Kull said. “You don't want to be hosting for someone else.”
St. Charles East clicked in every phase Thursday, two nights after looking sluggish against Glenbard North. Kull and her players credited Wednesday's practice for getting the team refocused.
“Tuesday was a struggle and we got in the gym yesterday and realized this is go time,” said junior setter Erienne Barry who directed the offense with 22 assists. “That's what we said. We had one of the best practices I've ever been in and we brought that into the game. We just played our hearts out.”
Batavia (23-14) found itself in just one tie in Game 1 at 2-2 on an ace Meghan Fabian, which turned out to be the Bulldogs' only ace of the night.
Strong serving from St. Charles East junior Nicole Woods put the Saints ahead for good. She served a pair of aces and as the game went on strong serving from St. Charles East led to several poor Batavia overpasses that Meghan Niski and Kathleen Dailey quickly pounced on for easy kills.
“That's always one of our goals in practice to make sure you have tough sieving so we can get them out of system and do what we can,” Woods said.
The Saints steadily increased their lead throughout Game 1. Batavia senior Mary Nilles (15 assists) set Heather Meyer for a kill to bring her team within 15-11.
The Saints outscored the Bulldogs 10-3 after that to end the game. Among the highlights of the strong finish was Barry winning a 50-50 ball at the net, another ace from Woods and four kills by Niski, including the one to end the game.
“Serving, passing, offense, everyone contributed,” Niski said. “We played really good.”
Stephanie Kinane served the first two points of Game 2 to give Batavia a short-lived lead, the points coming on one of Kristen Koncelik's team-high 6 kills and a Nilles block.
The Bulldogs held their biggest lead at 8-5 but from there the Saints outscored them 20-7. One one of the more exciting points came when Kathleen Dailey and Caitlyn Ballard went up strong for a block on a long rally kept alive by a one-handed diving dig from Maisey Mulvey.
On match point it was Niski in the back row who stayed alert on a Nilles quick tip attempt, sending a perfect pass to Barry who set Nichole Lambert in the middle for the match-ending kill.
Lambert finished with 6 kills, second to Niski's 10 to go with 6 digs. Woods added 5 kills while Dailey had 3 blocks.
The Saints' celebration was pretty quiet. The team posed for photos with the championship plaque, but this is a group with higher goals.
“Batavia played hard,” Kull said. “Every kid was pumped up tonight and did what they needed to do. Tonight was a total team effort. We had a great practice yesterday and came out today and just continued. They are playing really well right now.”
Batavia graduates seniors Nilles, Kinane, Kaytlin St. Clair and Fabian.
“Give them (St. Charles East) credit for serving us tough and us not being able to execute on offense,” Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne said. “You have to give St. Charles East credit for putting up some big blocks.
“I'm proud of our girls. We came in here and fought them tough. We had a tremendous season. Batavia doesn't get a lot of 23-win seasons. We had a heck of a season with some great senior leadership.”