Saints' win impresses Stars

The St. Charles East girls volleyball team was clearly ready for their biggest Upstate Eight Conference rivals, St. Charles North.

As if there wasn't enough excitement at St. Charles East for Homecoming this week, the Saints added to the fun with a 25-15, 25-13 victory over the North Stars Wednesday in St. Charles.

"We were so pumped," St. Charles East's Caroline Niski said. "We had the energy on our side the entire time. We are such a positive team. If something happens, we get right back up, and that helps so much."

"(St. Charles East is) one of the best teams in the state," St. Charles North coach Lindsay Trudell added. "We had to come in here and be competitive. We really didn't challenge them with our serving. We didn't play our best game, and they are great."

In Game 1, the Saints never trailed and went on an early 5-point run behind Stacy Reid's serving (including a pair of aces), St. Charles North errors and kills from Haley Streich and Jacqui Seidel. St. Charles East went on another 5-point run for a 19-10 lead.

The Saints closed out the first game by scoring the final two points, thanks to a Niski kill and a St. Charles North hitting error.

Game 2 began with 4 ties before the Saints (16-1, 4-0) went on a 5-point run behind Laura Homann's serving, North Star errors, a block from Olivia Desormey and kills from Seidel and Niski.

The North Stars got within 4 points before St. Charles East scored the next 7 points on Reid's serving and kills and blocks from five different players. The Saints' rally was stopped on a kill from Allie Van Dril, but by then, they led 22-12.

The match ended on a block from Seidel and Desormey.

Niski finished with a match-high 14 kills, along with Seidel's 6. Homann, the setter, added 3 kills to go with her 25 assists, 2 digs and 2 blocks.

"We are trying to spread our offense out more," St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull said. "(Homann) got the ball to all the hitters she wanted to. She did a great job running the offense."

"That is what is so awesome about our team," Niski added. "We are so deep, anyone can get the job done. I think we did a good job of that tonight."