It’s St. Charles E.-York, take four
York middle Sam Schrenker has a message for Saints fans planning on coming to Thursday night’s Class 4A St. Charles East sectional championship matchup between her top-seeded 32-3 Dukes and the No. 2 seed and 32-6 Saints.
“I love having other team’s fans yell at you,” Schrenker said. “I think it’s awesome and makes me play a lot better. I don’t think their home court advantage affects us at all. We might have some fans, we might not, but at the end of the day it comes down to how we play on the court and our side and I think that’s all that really matters.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a fun match to play. We barely beat them last year.”
If the play on the court is anything like the last three years, fans of both teams are in for a treat. St. Charles East defeated York in both the 2008 and 2009 sectional finals before York turned the tables and knocked off the Saints in last year’s Bartlett sectional championship.
That is a loss that Saints middle Nichole Lambert remembers well.
“It’s kind of like Batavia, we let it get away from us last year, we want to get it back,” Lambert said of also avenging a 2010 loss to the Bulldogs this year. “We are ready to go take it back.
“Some of those (York) girls I’ve seen play in club countless times so I know what to expect. We can definitely do it.”
The battle between outstanding middles on both sides of the net like Schrenker and Lambert is just one of the matchups to watch Thursday. Both teams are experienced.
Schrenker is joined by Caroline Rose, Katie Gallagher, Melissa Deatsch and Morgan Semmelhack, who all started on last year’s York team that defeated the Saints.
St. Charles East returns Lambert, Meghan Niski (match-high 17 kills Tuesday), Maisey Mulvey and Kathleen Dailey — and it has setter Erienne Barry back who injured her knee last season and missed the sectional championship. Barry directed the Saints’ comeback over St. Charles North on Tuesday with 40 assists while adding 3 blocks.
“We have to realize every game could be our last,” Barry said. “We have to put our hearts on the floor. We’ve been building up for this so this is go time.”
York’s last lost came Oct. 13 to Marist. The only other teams to defeat the Dukes this year are Benet and Lyons Township, and York later beat both teams in rematches.
“They are a really good team,” Saints coach Jennie Kull said. “They are very talented, they are very experienced as well. We are going to have to play our best. We can’t come out nervous like we did (Tuesday losing Game 1 to St. Charles North). We need a day to get ourselves together physically. That (SCN) was a battle.”
York coach Patty Iverson was just as complimentary of the Saints, a program she knows well. In 2008 the Saints defeated York 25-22, 25-19 on the way to the state title, then beat them again 25-22, 18-25, 25-19 in the 2009 sectional finals. York got revenge last year with a 25-23, 25-23 victory.
“They have such a winning attitude here that they are always tough to play,” Iverson said. “The gym is tough to play, the fans are tough to play, and they are a well-coached team.”
While the start Tuesday was concerning, Kull and her players certainly can gain confidence by the way they responded winning the last two games with their season on the line.
“I think we pretty much realized we had to maintain and keep going and keep pushing through despite all the obstacles to keep pushing and believing in ourselves,” said Sarah Dugan, one of eight Saints seniors. “I think we did that.”
Thursday’s winner advances to the York supersectional at 6 p.m. Saturday against either Glenbrook South or Loyola, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds who knocked off the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Glenbrook South sectional on Tuesday.
The Saints are hoping for another packed gym like they had Tuesday trying to give their team a little extra homecourt edge in a matchup of two premier programs that know each other so well.
“It’s great to have the fans here,” Dugan said. “It’s just amazing all the support we get.”