Girls volleyball: St. Charles North sweeps past Saints in straight sets

St. Charles North found a way to share a conference title this season despite a barrage of injuries.

During Tuesday's Class 4A Metea Valley Regional semifinal against rival St. Charles East, the North Stars found a way to win with Julianna DiTusa filling in as their newest libero, sweeping the Saints 25-12, 25-22.

The North Stars (23-13) advance to Thursday's regional title game against the host Mustangs (27-8).

"I'm really happy, and I can't imagine how it would feel losing to your rival," DiTusa said. "It just makes it 10 times better and gives us more motivation going into our next regional game."

Sacrificing her body on the hardwood whenever she saw the opportunity to make a play, DiTusa was inspired to make an impact.

"I think I was definitely nervous at the start of it, but being with my team made me want to play how I played tonight," she said. "I don't think I could've played this way if it wasn't for all the people out. I was definitely playing for them. It was a great experience to be on the court."

With seniors Adrianna Huptych, Jackie Ruder and Katherine Scherer already sidelined, the North Stars most recently lost Meg Kalenowski, who had filled in admirably as libero after Ruder suffered a foot injury.

"Injuries aren't anything we haven't seen before," DiTusa said. "Meg getting [injured] was just another bump in the road we have to overcome. That's what I was telling everyone today. We have to prove to ourselves and everybody else that's underestimating us that it's nothing we haven't dealt with before."

Dealing with change isn't foreign to DiTusa either.

"I used to be an outside (hitter) up until sophomore year, but really my freshman year I was playing libero for my team, and I have been my whole high school career," she said. "So then junior year during club I started playing as a DS, but never really as a libero. I mainly only believed in myself as being good enough to be DS, so it's really good I got the opportunity to play and wear this different jersey."

St. Charles East (9-26) strung three points together in the first set to pull within 16-10, but the North Stars put the set away with a 9-2 finish.

"I'm proud of them," Saints coach Kate McCullagh said. "After the first one being a little tough there score-wise, it showed heart to come back and be able to fight a bit, but too little, too late."

The North Stars appeared in full control in the second set after a Haley Burgdorf kill made it 14-7, but the Saints had one final scare left for the North Stars, tying the game at 22-22 after a big block from Sarah Musial.

"They are a tough team, and they served tough," North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "So our serve-receive started breaking down a little bit because they were putting on a lot of pressure, which made it a little bit tougher to hold onto the lead, and it's always a battle."

It always seems like Burgdorf knows where to hit the ball and how hard or soft to send it. While she's the one executing, feedback and guidance from her teammates has helped her continue to blossom into a scoring force.

"Her volleyball IQ is just unreal," Hawkins said. "And then we've got a couple of seniors on the bench right now because of injuries who are always talking to her about what's open, so they can trust the kids on the bench to tell you what's open, and they'll execute it."

Burgdorf placed one point deep that eluded the Saints before showing her soft touch and vision to tap down a ball to make it 24-22.

"I've been working on it since halfway through club season last year," she said. "I love the off-speed shot and everything, and I've got my teammates on the bench to help me know what's open on the court, but I also have my range of vision."

Senior Noelle Nyman followed with a block for the game-winning point.

The Saints also lost in two sets when they hosted the North Stars in DuKane Conference play Sept. 26.

"I can say that the record doesn't reflect the good things, and it's such a good group of girls," McCullagh said. "They came in every day to practice to put the work in. There were a lot of games we lost only by two against good teams, so to be able to hang and continue to work, we felt like the season could go either way here, and we anticipated coming in and having an upset."