Saints keep their cool

Putting away St. Charles East takes a little - or a lot - extra. When the Saints have their backs to the wall, they channel all the lessons learned while winning the 2008 Class 4A state championship.

St. Charles North certainly had the Saints on the ropes Thursday night, leading 19-14 in the third game with its packed home gym in a frenzy.

That's when the Saints' experience paid off. Instead of being rattled by the crowd and the North Stars' strong play, seniors Jacqui Seidel and Caroline Niski calmly delivered their team a 21-25, 25-12, 25-22 come-from-behind victory.

"They are definitely used to handling the pressure," St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "To their credit Caroline Niski and Jacqui Seidel lead that team very, very well. They do a great job of taking that pressure and making sure everyone else on the court is relaxed and plays through it."

Seidel led both teams with 17 kills and 21 assists. She pounded her final kill off a North Stars block out of bounds to end the match.

"We settled down, took a deep breath," Seidel said. "There was a lot of distractions but a lot of the team has been in that place before so we knew what we needed to do to refocus and get back in it."

It was an emotional night as the schools hosted Volley for a Cure. Before the match Saints coach Jennie Kull honored Kathy Harks, who passed away from breast cancer last weekend and had daughters who went to both St. Charles and St. Charles North High Schools.

The game also matched Kull against her former player Hawkins for the first time, and it gave the Saints (14-2, 4-0) the upper hand in the early stages of the conference race over the North Stars (11-7, 4-1).

"Those emotions are always huge," Kull said. "I think it was a positive night for everybody. It was nice Lindsey and I got to share that. I'm proud of her, I think she's done a fantastic job. Her team did a really great job today. She's obviously coached them well."

St. Charles East started fast, scoring the first seven points. Hawkins called timeout and it worked. The North Stars caught the Saints at 12-12 and never looked back.

St. Charles East began struggling with its ball control. One that got away went right to 6-foot-1 middle Allie VanDril, whose vicious smash put the North Stars ahead 14-12.

While big hits like VanDril's got the crowd on its feet, so did outstanding digs on each side, including libero Maisey Mulvey for the Saints and the North Stars' Karlie Giesler.

Sarah Clarkson's surprise tip gave the North Stars game point at 24-18. The Saints fought off three of them on kills by Nichole Lambert and Seidel before Katie Fuerst's cross-court kill closed Game 1.

After St. Charles North's VanDril, Jillian Stolzenburg and company controlled the net in Game 1, that changed in the final two games. Lambert's 8 blocks led a dominating Saints blocking effort that also included multiple blocks for Caroline and Meghan Niski, Seidel and Samantha Szarmach. The Saints also had 15 kills in Game 2 with no hitting errors.

"The first game we could get it through the block and the second game we were having trouble finding open spots," VanDril said. "They did a really good job.

"Our goal was to come out and beat them. They are a really good team but we didn't quite do it today."

With the North Stars ahead 19-15 in the third game, Aisha Tan served four straight points to tie it. St. Charles North regained a 21-19 lead on a Saints hitting error before St. Charles East's 6-1 run ended the match. Seidel put away three kills, and the Niski sisters both had a block kill.

"I think everybody stepped up at different times," said Kull, who also got 21 assists from freshman setter Erienne Barry and 16 kills by Meghan Niski. "North came after us and kind of put us on edge and that is something we have to learn to get through and they did tonight. I'm elated we were able to come back from a deficit in this place. That shows maturity."

Jen Ask (6 kills, 6 digs), Van Dril (4 blocks, 4 kills), Kim Juriga (4 kills), Olivia Schneider (12 assists) and Miranda Coello (9 digs) all played well for the North Stars, who also took positives from the match.

"They (the Saints) got a couple key blocks in that second game and I think that gave them the momentum," Hawkins said. "They were just blocking everything it seemed like. "We always take things as positives because we learn from our mistakes. We know if we can hang with a team like that we are a pretty good team. We just need to keep our heads up."