North Stars make it look easy

The St. Charles East boys volleyball team hasn't had too much experience playing teams with an obvious go-to guy.

Enter St. Charles North's Rusty Lavaja, a senior outside/middle hitter, who is clearly a dominating force on the court.

Lavaja finished with a match-high 9 kills in the North Stars' 25-10, 25-21 win over their Upstate Eight Conference rival Saints at St. Charles North Tuesday.

"(Lavaja) hit exactly where we thought he was going to hit," St. Charles East coach Stephanie Gooden said.

"We wanted to establish him early, and we did," St. Charles North coach Brad Mitchell added.

Lavaja and the North Stars (14-11, 5-2) set the tone early, as he posted 5 of his kills in Game 1, including the first two points of the game.

St. Charles North scored its points in small bunches. At one point the North Stars led 20-5 after an Austin Collingborne kill.

The two teams exchanged points until the game ended on a double block from Grant Livingston and Tyler Hoerner.

"We came out strong…I was happy with the way we played in the first game," Mitchell said.

"We just did everything we were supposed to do and it worked out," Lavaja added. "I think if we play like that all the time, we could beat a lot of people."

Game 2 was a lot more balanced, as the Saints (11-22, 4-3) led early. The game was tied 5 times before the North Stars took the lead for good.

The Saints, however, stayed close on the North Stars' heels and got within 23-20 with three consecutive points behind a Jeff Jones kill, an Eric Coleman ace and a Shawn Courtney kill.

The match finally ended the way it started -- with a kill from Lavaja.

"I think that first game was about getting all the butterflies out -- they were just really nervous," Gooden said "But then our inexperience showed through (in Game 2). We only have two returning players...not making any excuses, but we made errors that we normally wouldn't make. I think it's our younger, inexperienced guys learning from it…but they are a great group of guys, they didn't quit and they constantly tried. That's half the battle sometimes."

Both teams struggled with serving in Game 2. They combined for 10 missed serves.

"Lack of focus on both sides," Mitchell said.

In addition to Lavaja, the North Stars were led by Collingborne (6 kills), Livingston (4 kills), Hoerner (3 kills), Ben Marquez (7 digs) and Kegan Haeseli (21 assists).

The Saints were led by Jones (11 assists, 2 kills, 2 block), Courtney (5 kills) and Chris Brucher (3 kills).