Girls volleyball: Harvest Christian, St. Charles North ready for an encore
It's a tough act to follow, but two Fox Valley area volleyball teams are ready to give it their best shot.
St. Charles North and Harvest Christian enter the season with much in common, both coming off breakthrough seasons that saw each reach the state tournament for the first time in 4A and 2A, respectively.
While both schools graduated a lot from those teams, they also have some key pieces back hoping to build on last year's success.
And they also are ready for the increased expectations.
“We're so excited with how successful we were last year. We were just all so excited to come back and hopefully make it a great season again,” said St. Charles North senior Katie Lanz, one of two returning starters for the North Stars with GiGi Crescenzo.
Lanz also is the reigning Daily Herald Fox Valley All-Area captain. She will play next year at UNC-Wilmington and is embracing her role as a leader to players taking on bigger roles.
“I think the girls we have coming up are doing great,” Lanz said. “Of course it's going to be a lot different than last year but I think it's going to be a lot of fun with a new group of girls.”
Crescenzo is committed to Memphis giving the North Stars a pair of Division I players as steadying influences to pair with a promising group of newcomers.
In its season opener this week, Lanz and Crescenzo were joined in the starting lineup by libero Madison Gorniak, junior setter Kyla Lannert, sophomore Cailey Johns, and juniors Brigid McCarthy and Makayla Morgan.
St. Charles North finished last year 37-5.
“Definitely a target on our back but I think it made the girls really, really hungry,” North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. “They walked into the gym with a little bit of swagger to them. It's not good enough to get wins, we need to be the best we can be every single day. It's cool to see they want to win and they want to see the same success they had.”
The North Stars reached state last year by winning a DeKalb sectional that included two of the other top area teams, St. Charles East and Huntley. Both the Saints and Red Raiders look primed for big years.
Both St. Charles East and Huntley are led by phenomenal setters. Huntley junior Taylor Jakubowski is headed to Seton Hall, and Saints senior McKenna Slavik will play at Clemson.
In Class 2A, Harvest Christian is coming off a 29-11 season in Mike Bui's second year as coach, taking fourth in state.
The Lions graduated Amanda Cassidy, Candis Kaplan, Hannah Griffith and Rylee Boldog, but they do return senior setter Kaitlin Murray (840 assists), junior libero Zoe Pawelek (91 aces), junior Madison Pfister (181 kills), senior Jimena Montano and sophomore Mya Jenkins.
“There's definitely big expectations but we're just all working hard to get that same goal and get downstate again,” Montano said.
Harvest also added freshmen Hayley Martin and Addison Nava.
“Our younger kids have improved a ton this off-season and the two incoming freshmen will give us some height that we need,” Bui said.
Bui said serving should be a strength this season. He's also running a different offense without traditional middle hitters.
Harvest went 29-11 last year, and Bui wouldn't be surprised — or care — if the Lions take a number of losses again. He's put them in several tournaments against 4A schools to prepare them for the postseason.
“It's a different Harvest team compared to the last seven years,” Bui said. “There's not as much offensive power. It's more of a defensive team, keep the ball in play. We run a weird offense, no middles, a little different than what you see normal. We're hoping to catch other teams off-guard.
“Our kids are hungry. Our upper classmen have experienced state and they feed it to our younger kids. They are in the gym on time. They are early if anything, they stay longer than I want them to stay. They are very hungry right now which is great to see.”