Girls volleyball: WW South tops St. Charles North
Wheaton Warrenville South is fielding four natural setters on the court as starters, but not exactly by design.
Suffice to say, positional versatility in a truncated regular season can be check marked in the plus column for the Tigers. Becca Bellows, Zayna Meyer, Darby Harris and Lilly King will find themselves rotating around the net on a nightly basis.
"We're all playing different positions but it's so great because a lot of the girls are so athletic and can play whatever position they want," Meyer said following the Tigers' 26-24, 25-14 opening night sweep over St. Charles North on Tuesday. "Becca Bellows, she's a setter, and she's playing middle."
"It's just been awesome that they've been able to sacrifice their position and play in different roles," Meyer continued. "It's been really fun and everyone has such a good attitude about it."
The Tigers graduated several pieces from their Class 4A state runner-up team from last year, forcing some positional changes.
"We did have a couple starters that aren't actually back. They've decided not to, for whatever reasons," Tigers coach Bill Schreier said. "[For example,] Maddie Kruse was our right side last year; she would've flipped into the middle this year, so we do have some new people in new positions."
"When you look at us, we're actually kind of young, which is great," Schreier continued. "But, then again, it's also 'Woah, we've got some work to do here.' It was nice to get off to a good start here. [St. Charles North] is a good team, great program. I thought we came in with pretty good energy."
Sacrificing natural playing positions is an area that originates back to last year's state team.
Meyer, who had eight kills, will be just one key standout for the Tigers this season. She'll be continuing to take on an important leadership role moving forward.
"Just communicating with everyone," Meyer said, who is also an outside hitter. "Letting them know what's going on. If you're having a down day, kind of taking someone else's load. Just trying to stay positive with everything that's going on and [wanting] to win so bad."
The Tigers (1-0, 1-0) jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first set, but the North Stars (0-1, 0-1) battled back to tie the score three times before taking their first lead 23-22 on Mia Dela Merced's kill.
A North Stars attack error tied the score, but senior Cailey Johns helped them retake the lead. Meyer then responded with a kill of her own for the 24-24 stalemate. Another North Stars attack error and a kill from Meyer helped the Tigers take the first set.
The Tigers again jumped out to an 8-2 advantage in the second set, eventually building a 10-point lead and ultimately put the North Stars away comfortably.
Lizzie Chiesa had six kills, while Lilly King had five kills for the Tigers. Harris produced 20 assists, two kills, three aces and six digs. Taylor Olsen had six digs.
The North Stars are working on jelling after the graduation of a number of key seniors which included Kyla Lannert, Lauren Ringness, Maddie Gorniak and Nikole Custer.
Johns, who missed the majority of last season with a torn labrum before briefly returning for action, will be a critical piece at the net for the North Stars while the group gets its communication and timing worked out on the offensive and defensive end.
"She's pretty dominant," North Stars coach Lindsay Hawkins said of Johns, who had six kills for the North Stars. "She's very hard to stop so if you can get her the ball, it's going to be good."
"This season, I'm just glad to be back," Johns said. "Especially since everything with COVID, we're all just really, really glad that we can get in and play and have an opportunity to."