Girls volleyball: St. Charles North dominates DeKalb for regional title
St. Charles North was evidently ready to roll from the opening volley.
"We just wanted to go out and kill it," freshman outside hitter Haley Burgdorf said following the North Stars' 25-11, 25-11 sweep over DeKalb in the Class 4A South Elgin regional title game on Thursday. "We were bringing the energy. After our first five plays, we were ready to go.
"We acted like the other team [was St. Charles] East. We still played great. We dominated it was so fun."
The North Stars (29-8) finished with an undefeated DuKane Conference record in the regular season and now are riding a five-match winning streak. Thursday's regional title is the program's ninth under coach Lindsay Hawkins and first since 2019, as the North Stars fell in last year's final to Jacobs.
"I think everyone got involved. We all do our roles and we all kill it [effort-wise] out there," said Burgdorf, who had nine kills. "It's really fun to see us as a team and connect on the court."
No. 1 seed St. Charles North has to bring the same dominant-driven mindset in advancing to Monday's sectional semifinal vs. No. 2 seed Huntley at 7 p.m. at Harlem High School in Machesney Park.
Huntley, which advanced to a 4A supersectional last season, is 30-6 and was 18-0 in Fox Valley Conference play.
"We've been having a lot of conversations about the mental side of volleyball and how everybody is going to bring their A-game at this point in the season," Hawkins said. "It's about 'who is going to make less errors?' and 'who is going to be locked in the whole time'?
"Sometimes, that's going to take you farther than the talent will. They have total belief that they are good. They have a belief in each other and when they lock-in like that, they are going to be hard to beat."
The mindset, whoever the opponent may be, is "focusing one day at a time."
"Everybody's goal is to go far," Hawkins said. "But, we want to focus on one day at a time and enjoy the whole experience. Enjoy every moment of it and make sure we're getting better every time we step in on the court. It's our mentality right now."
DeKalb (12-21), meanwhile, embraced one another in a final team huddle with some tears, laughter and more to commemorate the final ride for 10 seniors: Lauren Gates, Mia Adeoti, Rylee Bobo, MaKayla Williams, Madilyn Schermerhorn, Adelynn Levine, Calissa Hudson, Megan Gates, Ella Swanson and Kailey Porter.
Gates had three kills and an ace for the Barbs, while Swanson had two kills.
"This is my third year at the helm of DeKalb volleyball and this is a class that has kind of been with me through it all," coach Nicole Lambert said. "When you have a class of that size and has really been together for that long, it's really, really special to watch them play together.
"We play in a really tough conference [DuPage Valley], so we take our licks there. Beyond that, we've played through a lot of injuries this season. I think we've had an injury a week for the last five weeks or so, so it really shows their mental toughness and the strength that they have as seniors to be able to fight through that, still stay positive and still work hard."