St. Charles North's depth shines against South Elgin

Missing Northwestern-bound Daley Krage, among others, turned out to be a blessing in disguise for St. Charles North girls volleyball coach Lindsey Hawkins Tuesday night.

A number of new North Stars stepped up, leading St. Charles North to a 25-19, 25-10 victory over South Elgin in an Upstate Eight Conference crossover.

Krage is out with the flu. She was less than 100 percent Saturday when St. Charles North (6-1) lost at the Plainfield North Tournament to Geneva who was missing a star of its own in junior Grace Loberg, sidelined with mono.

"We are carrying 15 and I thought that was a lot but we are down to 9 now," said Hawkins, who has players out with a concussion and an emergency appendectomy among other ailments. "It's good because some of our young players who I really want to get varsity experience got to get in."

Among those were sophomores Abby Graham and Amanda Parker; both contributed 4 kills. Freshman Gigi Crescenzo also had 4 kills while Lauren Caprini had an equally impressive effort in the back row.

"Amanada Parker did a great job setting and hitting," Hawkins said. "We're asking her to do a lot. She was excited to get the start.

"Lauren did a great job in the back row. She's quick, she makes it look easy a lot."

Rounding out the newcomers were middles Anna DuVall and Jordan Silvers.

"They are doing a great job especially with blocking," Hawkins said. "We want to see them get a little more involved in offense and then we will be in a really good place."

There were a couple regulars in the North Stars lineup. Jaclyn Taylor fed the offense, dishing out 16 assists, while Claire Anderson led all hitters with 7 kills.

Playing its first match of the season, South Elgin (0-1) played from behind all night. Rachel Priore tooled a ball on the first point of the game for a 1-0 lead - the only one the Storm would hold.

Anderson's dig to Taylor who set Silvers on a slide play gave the North Stars a 12-4 lead in the first set and led to the Storm's first timeout. South Elgin got as close as 14-11 before the North Stars surged again, closing out the first set on a kill by Brenna Lannert.

The North Stars were even more in command in the second set, quickly taking 6-1 and 15-4 leads as the Storm started to make more mistakes. Taylor's ace made it 15-4 and Hawkins subbed her out, bringing in Nicole Thrun who directed the North Stars the rest of the way.

The match ended when the Storm let DuVall's serve drop for an ace down the line.

"There were things we did good but there are definitely things to be a competitive varsity volleyball team we weren't doing every time," Storm coach Joni Plach said.

"I told the girls they have to call the ball in or out or talk about what the other team is doing. Highly competitive teams are smart volleyball players. It wasn't about our skill tonight, it was our level of intelligent volleyball."

Priore led the Storm with 5 kills and 8 digs. Casie Swanson and Julia Saldivar both had 3 assists.