Girls volleyball: Dynamic duo lifts St. Charles North to regional crown
St. Charles North features a one-two punch few teams can match, and that duo came through on the biggest points Thursday night in the Class 4A St. Charles North regional championship game.
Seniors Katie Lanz and Gigi Crescenzo are both four-year standouts, both headed to play Division I volleyball next year at UNC-Wilmington and Memphis, respectively.
Whenever Geneva made even the slightest challenge Thursday, Lanz and Crescenzo took turns putting away a booming kill that the Vikings didn't have an answer for. It added up to a 25-18, 25-19 North Stars victory.
"They are fearless," St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "Having them for the past four years has been really, really nice. We're really going to miss them. They will go after it. They don't care who is on the other side."
Fellow DuKane Conference rival Geneva (20-17) was on the other side, a team that has a strong block at the net and scrappy defense in the back led by libero Grace Hinchman.
That combination kept plenty of balls up and points going, but when the North Stars needed to put a ball down both Lanz and Crescenzo came through, tying with a match-high 11 kills. Nobody on Geneva had more than 5.
"Katie and I have played together for four years and we just work really well together," Crescenzo said. "Katie always puts the ball away. I just had to rely on what I know I can do and my setters will give me a good ball and I just have to put it away and listen to where my coaches are telling me to go."
The win sets up a heavyweight sectional semifinal Monday night against Huntley (34-3), a battle of the No. 1 and No. 3 ranked teams in the Daily Herald Top 20. The North Stars (31-6) will be playing on Huntley's home court after winning Thursday in the final game on their own home court.
"It was great," Lanz said. "We knew it was our last home game. This is it. We were having so much fun out here."
Lanz put away 6 kills in the opening set. The North Stars scored the first two points on a kill by Kyla Lannert and then Lannert's ace, and Geneva never took the lead or forced a tie.
The same thing happened in the second set. Grace Lilly tooled a ball off the Vikings' block for the first point, Crescenzo stuffed a ball for a block and a 2-0 lead, and Geneva never caught up the rest of the set.
Vikings coach Annie Seitelman called timeout after Lanz rolled a shot for a winner and a 6-1 lead. Lanz set Crescenzo for a kill that made it 16-9 before Geneva rallied.
Some strong blocking by Avery Brown helped the Vikings get as close as 17-15. Crescenzo hit down the line for a winner, then put a ball down from the back row - where she was effective hitting from all night.
"I work on that a lot because I know I'll be playing back row in college so I figured that's something I should get better at," Crescenzo said.
"Gigi really got going," Hawkins said. "It's (hitting from the back row) extremely hard to time. She was spot on with her placement of it. We wanted her to go zone one and she was there every time."
Fittingly, Lanz ended the match with an ace. She added 9 assists, 8 digs and 2 aces, Crescenzo had 11 digs and Lannert totaled 5 kills.
Eli Ford and Rachel Silvestri both had 5 kills for the Vikings.
"We didn't show up with the same energy that we did Tuesday (a semifinal win over Batavia)," Seitelman said. "We had spurts of it. There were times when we played a little hesitant. Credit to them, they are a great team, have some really good players. It's just disappointing when you don't play your best."
The Vikings will return four starters next season.
"We had a great crowd, great fans, awesome atmosphere," Seitelman said. "We have a good core coming back. We had a really tough schedule. Our season was a grind. We wanted to peak toward the end. We had a glimpse of that peak on Tuesday. Overall it's a great group of kids and it's tough to see it end."