Girls volleyball: South Elgin, St. Charles East advance to regional final
There was just no stopping South Elgin. Playing before a raucous home crowd, the Storm downed rival Bartlett, 25-21, 25-11, in the semifinals of the Class 4A South Elgin regional.
The Storm will meet St. Charles East, a 25-13, 25-21 winner over Jacobs in the evening's first match, on Thursday for the regional title.
Hayley Fisher with 8 kills led a balanced attack for South Elgin (27-9), which set a school record for wins in a season.
The Storm took control of the second set with a 9-point run to go up 14-5, then scored the final 7 points of the match to beat the Hawks for the third time this season.
"We knew they were going to come out stronger, so we just focused on what was going on on our side," said South Elgin's Rylee Pompa. "It was more communication and energy because in the first set we were kind of lacking that. We wanted to finish strong."
It was a total team effort for the Storm.
"We're definitely an 8-player team," said South Elgin coach Joni Plach. "We have plenty of girls to get the job done, we don't just 1 or 2 girls that can get kills. We have 6 girls that can get kills and that's the key for us. We can set the ball to anybody and get a kill."
Kendall Richardson added 5 kills, and Pompa contributed 3 kills and 4 blocks. Libero Emily Wellman led the defensive effort with 19 digs.
The first set was much tighter, as Bartlett jumped ahead 5-1. South Elgin rallied to go ahead with Richardson firing a pair of aces from the service stripe. The Hawks briefly regained the lead, 7-6, before the Storm went on a 4-0 run to go ahead for good.
"The better team won," said Bartlett coach Robert Schwantz. "They took it to us. They did everything better than us. They were faster, they were stronger at the net. We made some basic errors, just little things that caught up to us."
Emily Baggot played a solid all-around game for the Hawks (19-11) with 7 kills and 9 digs. Isabella Diaz had 3 kills and 6 digs, while Samantha Martino dug up 10 more for Bartlett.
In the first match, the Saints won the first set handily but trailed Jacobs 20-15 in the second set before rallying to score 10 of the final 11 points.
Emily Stallman served 6 straight points, including an ace, putting the Saints ahead 22-20. After a sideout by Jacobs, back-to-back kills by Kirsten Rogers and a block by Samantha Urban finished it off.
"The kids (turned it around)," said St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull. "They've been practicing being down in practice and turning it around. We kind of were slow today, we didn't have our normal push. It's the first game of regionals. The first game of the playoffs, you've got to feel that out and that's what happened."
"We just talked about bringing a lot more energy to the court, talking a lot more," said St. Charles East Calli Gentry, "and that just really brought the play up, too."
Urban finished with 9 kills, while Gentry added 7 and Rogers 6. Emily Stallman led the defense with 20 digs.
The Golden Eagles played well for most of the second set but couldn't finish it.
"A little bit of our inexperience showed, with some younger players out there," said Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer. "Their defense was so spunky. I can't complain about the passing or the defense. I was extremely proud of them. Yeah, it was just some of that inexperience. We got some passes, but we just needed to get a little better offense off of those passes and digs that we had."
Maggie Wallenberger led Jacobs with 9 kills, while Jaclyn Poirier added 6. Rachel Kaczorowski had 21 assists.