Waubonsie Valley forces St. Charles North to 3 games
With the way Waubonsie Valley was playing on its home court, St. Charles North had to be a little nervous at times. Yet the North Stars had plenty of reasons to keep the faith.
St. Charles North, the No. 2 seed in the Class 4A East Aurora girls volleyball sectional, dropped the first game of Thursday's regional final at Waubonsie, and later trailed 10-4 in the decisive third set. But the North Stars (34-3) had already beaten the Warriors once this year after falling in the opening set. On top of that, coach Lindsey Hawkins has a large contingent of veterans who have played in a number of big matches.
Despite the obstacles it was no big surprise that St. Charles North rallied to claim the regional crown with a 20-25, 25-13, 25-20 defeat of the seventh-seeded hosts.
"There's something about that group of seniors," Hawkins said. "They've played together so long and they play at such a high level of volleyball. When they're down on the court they just look at each other, and it's electrifying for me. It's like, 'Let's go. Let's do this.' So when we're down and they're pushing at us, we can push back. They've been there. They're battled tested."
The experienced North Stars stood tall when needed the most. Senior setter Jaclyn Taylor had 38 assists and got everyone involved in the offense, while senior libero Samantha Lappin led the defense with 14 digs.
Then you had the big-hitting pair of seniors Daley Krage and Claire Anderson, who combined for 31 kills, many of which seemed to come when St. Charles North needed to score on a fired-up Waubonsie squad.
Anderson, whose 19th and final winner of the night ended the thrilling match, hopes the tough test prepares the North Stars for next week's sectional, where they will see a Naperville North team that outlasted Geneva in three sets.
"They're a very good team," she said of the Warriors, who finished the season 23-14. "They've got a lot of beach girls so they're very scrappy on defense. Matches like this really keep our fight in us. If we just cruised through all the time we might take things for granted. It's better when we have to fight so that we know we can play like that all the time."
The North Stars needed to fight because Waubonsie Valley was on top of its game. With Brooke Burling and Caroline Cordes doing all they could to extend their senior seasons, the hosts claimed the opener. After the North Stars dominated Game 2, the Warriors then jumped ahead 10-4 in the decisive set following an ace by Laura Severance before coming up just short.
"I think we played really well today," said Cordes, who had 10 kills. "The first game we came out with a bunch of energy. We played them before and lost in three and it was really close so we knew we could take them."
Cordes said the team regrouped after the tough second set and gave it their all in the finale.
"We made sure we came out in the third game and said, 'Hey this is all or nothing.' Right here this could be the end of our season so we just tried as hard as we could. We just came up short. I think we played really well and I'm very proud of our team."
Krage, who had 12 kills, is excited about next week's next round.
"We're feeling pretty good now," she said. "Sectionals will be a lot tougher, and there will be some teams that we know, and there will be a lot on the line there."
St. Charles North plays Naperville North in one sectional semifinal, and the other semifinal at East Aurora will feature No. 1 St. Francis and No. 4 Neuqua Valley.