Boys volleyball: St. Charles North outlasts St. Charles East
It quickly became clear on Tuesday night when St. Charles East put up two strong defensive blocks in the opening moments against a couple of St. Charles North's biggest hitters that despite being the decisive underdogs the Saints weren't backing down and that nothing was going to come easy for the host North Stars
The 12-seeded Saints made certain of that as they went on to win Game 1, but eventually the fifth-seeded North Stars' talent was too much to overcome and they prevailed with a hard fought 20-25, 25-17, 25-15 win in semifinal action of the SCN boys volleyball regional. North (26-11) advances to play fourth-seeded Wheaton North in the regional finals on Wednesday."
"Hats off to East," North coach Todd Weimer said. "They played out of their minds. They made very few mistakes and definitely made us earn everything, It's always hard going up against your rivals in the playoffs."
After dropping the first game North also trailed through much the first part of Game 2 before finally rallying.
Tommy Koppang (6-foot-8) led the comeback for North with a team-high 14 kills and 3 blocks. Game 2 was tied at 12-12 when Koppang slammed down 3 straight kills to give North a 15-12 lead.
"That first game was a bit of a shock for us," Koppang said. "Maybe since we thought we beat them earlier in the year that we would just automatically beat them again. But every team wants it. They definitely showed they wanted it. So it was a wake-up call for us. We finally started making smarter shots. We knew we had a height advantage and we started to utilize it."
The Pepperdine-bound Koppang continued to dominate with 3 more kills down the stretch in Game 2 and 6 more in the decisive Game 3.
"We have several guys who can hit and block," Weimer said. "But Tommy is that special type of player who can just take over a game. He's hard to stop when he gets on a roll."
David Beach added 8 kills and 14 assists for North. He had a couple of big kills during a 5-0 run in Game 3 that put North up 10-7. North never surrendered the lead after that and pulled away at the end with a closing 10-2 run.
"The first game made us take us step back and refocus," Beach said. "After that our desire and motivation just took over."
Brendan Dal Degan and Kyle Donlevy each added 7 kills. Max Dedobbelaere had a team-high 17 digs.
East (16-12) was led by Drew Olsen with a team-high 9 kills.
"We knew it was going to be tough," East coach Kate McCullagh said. "I'm disappointed with the final score but I'm not at all disappointed with the kids' effort. They played hard. North is a really good athletic team and we made them work for every point. I loved coaching these kids. We have some great seniors who I know are going on to bigger and better things, but it's still sad to see them go."