Girls volleyball: Neuqua Valley takes down St. Charles East

Kelly Simon had last-minute instructions for standout upperclassmen Kora Kauling and Maria Mayhew.

"I told them before the game that the whole match does not rest on their shoulders," the Neuqua Valley girls volleyball coach said.

Thursday evening at the Class 4A West Aurora regional championship, Kauling and Mayhew combined for 17 kills and 22 assists to lead the Wildcats past St. Charles East in straight sets 25-20, 25-20.

Neuqua Valley (27-10), seeded fifth in the Geneva sectional complex, will face the host and top-seeded Vikings on Tuesday.

Fourth-seeded St. Charles East had its season close at 27-10.

It was truly a rubber match as the teams split their two regular-season matches.

But the two southpaws from Neuqua Valley orchestrated the Wildcats' offensive attack with poise and maturity. Mayhew terminated the first set with a block; the junior then had the last of her 8 kills to end the Saints' campaign.

Neuqua Valley also defeated its former conference rival in the regional final last year.

"We played our game, being tough and aggressive," Mayhew said. "We were all together for the entire time."

Kauling, bound for Wichita State, set the tone with an ace to start the match. The powerful outside hitter had a match-high 9 kills while demonstrating overall court savvy with 10 assists.

Mayhew led the Wildcats with 12 assists.

"Maria kept giving me really good sets," Kauling said. "(The Saints') deep corner was really open the whole time. I kept hitting in that area. When we were in system, it was real easy to get big kills."

Kauling, with Neuqua Valley trailing 14-10 in the opening set, had one of her match-high kills to launch a 15-6 game-ending run. Klaudia Sowizral had back-to-back kills for St. Charles East to reduce the Saints' deficit to 22-19. A rare Neuqua Valley hitting error quickly ensued, but the Wildcats scored the final 5 points in succession. Shannon Skryd had a crucial kill for Neuqua Valley, and Mayhew had one of her 3 blocks moments later to ice the first set.

The Wildcats were the aggressors all match.

"We had significantly more kills than they did in both games," Simon said.

Neuqua Valley had far fewer hitting mistakes as well.

"One think today was that we kept our errors down," Mayhew said.

The Wildcats were never trailed nor were they tied in the second game.

Scoring 6 of the first 7 points, St. Charles East never came closer than 4 points the rest of the match.

"We made too many errors tonight," St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull said. "We didn't take care of the ball like we should have. (The girls) obviously wanted it. I could see it in their eyes. The errors really hurt us tonight."