St. Charles East 2nd, Geneva 5th at Mizuno Cup
Second place, St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull will accept.
It's the direction of her team she is stoked about.
In a matchup of defending state champions and a rematch of last year's tournament final the Saints gave Joliet Catholic all it wanted before falling 25-22, 25-18 in the Mizuno Cup championship at Aurora's Great Lakes Center.
St. Charles East (22-4), which routed Muskego (Wis.) 25-15, 25-16 in the semifinals, exchanged 11 ties and 5 lead changes in a particularly well-played Game 1 with Joliet Catholic.
"I'm very pleased with how we played this weekend," Kull said. "We've been trying different lineups and battling injuries. Now we're finally settling in. When you have four sophomores and a freshman you're happy to come out with second place in a tournament like this."
The last tie came at 20-20 on a Meghan Niski kill. But Joliet Catholic outside Annemarie Hickey countered with 3 straight kills for a 23-20 lead, then drove home another kill to set up game point. The Wisconsin recruit put down kills for the last 4 points of Game 2 as well, finishing with 16 kills.
"(Setter) Jen (Murphy) came up to me and said, 'Every time I set you I know you're getting a kill,' " Hickey said. "It makes me happy to know she has that much confidence in me. I know the girls are looking to me to put the ball down."
Jacqui Seidel had 9 kills, Caroline Niski 7 kills and Meghan Niski 6 for St. Charles East in the match. Maisey Mulvey added 10 digs for the Saints, who could meet Joliet Catholic again next week at Glenbard East's Autumnfest. Joliet Catholic is seeded No. 1 there, St. Charles East No. 3.
"It was fun to see them play at this level," Kull said, "and I know we can play better. I'm pleased that we didn't get blown out in this match and played respectable."
Geneva (24-2) came back from a tough start Saturday to take fifth place. The Vikings lost to Muskego 25-19, 25-14 in the Gold Division quarterfinals but bounced back to beat Lockport 21-25, 25-21, 25-12 and Neuqua Valley 22-25, 25-15, 25-15.
"Give that team (Muskego) credit. They were pretty much flawless against us," Geneva coach KC Johnsen said. "We haven't lost many matches this season, so it was nice to see us get back on track and play really solid volleyball."
Lauren Wicinski had 59 kills, 30 digs and 11 aces over five matches for Geneva. Kelsey Augustine added 34 kills and 31 digs and Grace Burns had 67 digs.
The Vikings were disappointed to miss out on a semifinal match with St. Charles East - but know that date could be looming in a Class 4A sectional final next month.
"Obviously, we want to play St. Charles East," Wicinski said, "because they're a great team and we want to see how we compare to them. We'll play them eventually, hopefully."
Neuqua Valley (20-8), in the Gold playoffs for the first time, found itself playing short-handed after setter Sam Skryd went down with a sprained MCL in Friday night pool play. With Beth Blackman running the offense, the Wildcats lost to Joliet Catholic 25-21, 25-14, then rallied to beat Bloomington 20-25, 25-12, 27-25 before running out of gas against Geneva.
Nikki Federico had 46 kills and 47 digs over five matches to lead the Wildcats (20-8).
"I'm really proud of the girls," Neuqua coach Kelly Simon said. "The adversity of losing Sam made them step up more as a team. Everybody filled their roles and was encouraging each other. Even when we had our struggles we pulled together."