Schneider's hustle, smarts leads St. Charles East to victory

Lia Schneider's game face is evidently hard to crack.

Schneider, the St. Charles East senior defensive specialist and libero, likes to keep her intense focus on the game and the play at hand.

It ultimately leads to positive results for the Saints more often than not.

"She's just a phenomenal player," St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull said following the Saints' 25-21, 25-18 sweep over Plainfield North on Tuesday. "She has a court sense like no other."

Schneider, who had eight digs and an ace, seems to scoop up any opposing attack.

"I just love to get on the ground honestly at that point," Schneider said. "It's just so fun, and then, getting all the hype from it, too, especially when you can dig anything and your teammates trust you so much, having that trust just makes me so much of a better player."

"It makes our team better, too, because they know I can always get it. I trust them too trust me," Schneider said.

Kull, who is in her 36th total season of coaching volleyball, has arguably seen it all from a player-skill perspective.

"I've never had a player that's got court sense like that," Kull said.

"There's some good kids that I've had passing and such, but the way that she sees the court, the ball, the way she runs it, she just does great things," Kull continued. "I always say she's a 'wizard' and they laugh at me for that, but she's a wizard. She makes things happen."

The Saints (1-1) offensively were powered by outside hitter Kate Goudreau's 12 kills, while Natalee Rush added six blocks and two kills. Sarah Musial had four digs and Maya Lopez had five digs.

"Kate, she was on fire," Kull said. "She really did a great job and Natalee in the middle blocking. Our defense, I think they covered pretty well. This is what I knew they could do; they didn't start the season out that way but I couldn't be prouder."

St. Charles East has four returning seniors in Schneider, Goudreau, Lexi Crossen and Julie Ferrandino. Musial highlights the juniors with varsity experience last year. It is a group hoping to build on a regional plaque from last year.

Though, for now, it's about continuously jelling and enjoying themselves in the moment.

"As a group, we're always very superstitious," Schneider said. "We have a lot of things that we like to do. We love to party and dance, especially [pregame] when we're all in the corner hyping each other up. So, then we came out [ready to play]."

Plainfield North (5-2) was led by five kills apiece from Lizzie Fitzgerald and Lauren Jansen. Ella Malevich had four kills.