Girls volleyball: St. Charles East starts busy week with easy win
It's a big week for the St. Charles East girls volleyball team and it couldn't have started any better.
The Saints rolled to their eighth straight win on Tuesday night with a 25-9, 25-16 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory at South Elgin.
Senior Kyla Augustine led the way with 13 kills. Klaudia Sowizral added 8 kills.
East now gets ready to play highly-touted Benet, the defending Class 4A state champion, on Thursday before showcasing its talents' at the very competitive Mother McAuley Preview in a total of 5 matches on Friday and Saturday.
"We definitely have a busy week," East coach Jennie Kull said. "So, it was really important to set the tone and get it off to a good start."
The Saints (8-2, 3-0) did just that jumping out to an 11-1 lead in Game 1 behind the serving of Kyra Slavik. Augustine was dominant during the opening stretch with 5 kills and Slavik had an ace.
"With everything going on this week the kids came out very focused," Kull said. "They were ready to go. I was very pleased with the way we played. Kyla took over right away. She can be that kind of player. It was also good to see everyone get in and contribute."
Game 2 was tight early on with East leading just 10-8 before Augustine and Sowizral teamed up with 3 kills each down the stretch to help the Saints pull away.
"We are in a great mindset right now," said Sowizral. "The whole dynamic of the team is about supporting each other. We wanted to get the week off to a good start. Its going to be exciting playing against some of those teams."
In addition to the host the Mother McAuley Preview includes top-notch teams like York and Marian Central.
"We are really looking forward to it," Kull said. "It's always good to play against that kind of competition. We'll get a good sense of where we stand."
Slavik finished with a team-high 16 assists. Anna Skryd, Amanda Davidson, and Morgan Kull each had 9 digs.
South Elgin falls to 3-5-2 overall and 0-1 in the UEC River.
Hayley Fisher had a team-high 5 kills for the Storm. Casey Swanson had 6 assists. While Sarah Murray led South in digs with 7.
"We knew East is a high caliber team that is going to come with its best every time," South Elgin coach Joni Plach said. "We just weren't ready to match it. We were a step behind putting up the blocks. Hopefully we can use this as a learning experience."