St. Charles East wins McCullagh's debut

St. Charles East didn't just give Kate McCullagh a victory in her debut as Saints coach Tuesday, they played well enough to raise their expectation level for the entire season.

"We had high expectations but we didn't have that kind of expectations. It was a really good game," said junior middle Josh Carnell after the Saints' 25-10, 25-21 victory over Hinsdale South.

Not that St. Charles East (1-0) didn't expect to beat Hinsdale South (0-1), but the result and consistent play certainly made McCullagh enjoy her first match that much more.

To think she has spent the preseason practice working basically solely on the passing game and has yet to incorporate much of what she wants.

"We haven't even gone through half of what we wanted to, our defense, our blocking," McCullagh said. "Pretty much all we've been working on is passing the ball."

That focus on ball control paid off. While the Hornets' serve-receive broke down throughout the match, the Saints were steady.

St. Charles East only trailed twice early in Game 1. An ace from Baxter Reed capped a 7-0 run that put the Saints ahead 10-4.

After misfiring on three of their first four serves, St. Charles East began to use the serve as a weapon and finished with 7 aces. Reed had 4 of them.

"They did a lot of things right," Hinsdale South coach Billson Rasavongxay said. "Well coached, well disciplined, some pretty good hitters in the middle. They served tough and that was one of our big down points that we couldn't pass against their serve."

Carnell was one of those middles, finishing with 4 kills and 4 blocks. The other middle, senior Taylor Flahaven, led the Saints with 5 kills. P.J. Upton closed Game 1 by smashing a shot off a Hornet block.

"Our middles and setter (Brandon Cermak) played well," McCullagh said. "We passed well enough to run our middles. Our middles are a big part of our game. In high school ball sometimes you don't always see that."

Hinsdale South played better in Game 2, leading early 5-2 after three straight Saints errors.

St. Charles East went ahead at 6-5 and led the rest of the way. Hinsdale South rallied from 24-18 to 24-21 before Carnell took a set from Cermak and put away the final point. Cermak finished with 16 assists.

McCullagh, a Woodstock High School and Northern Illinois graduate who has assisted the Saints the past three years, liked the poise her team showed in their first match.

"None of them looked nervous at any moment," McCullagh said. "It is kind of hard to teach in practice. You kind of just have to wait and see how it is in the first game, see if there are players who crack under pressure. I didn't see that at all. That's exciting."

The Hornets, coming off a 14-20 season, only had 2 returning starters. They committed 6 hitting errors in each game and several other passing miscues.

"Definitely a lot of first game mistakes," Rasavongxay said. "They were so anxious and so excited. But that (inexperience) is no excuse."

Junior Ray Riordan and senior Jordan Burns led the Hornets with 4 and 3 kills, respectively.

"We want to be a lot more competitive than that," Rasavongxay said. "We want to compete for a conference championship. We are hoping to flip our record."