Saints start postseason with comfortable win

Comments (...)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Comments

Share

SCHAUMBURG – St. Charles East found the one piece of normalcy it has consistently experienced throughout the 2009 girls volleyball season Thursday night. 

A win.

The Saints, the defending 4A state champions, began their playoffs with a 25-12, 25-18  drubbing of No. 16 Glenbard East in the 4A Schaumburg Regional.

“I’m very pleased with how we played,” East head coach Jennie Kull said. “We had a different lineup because Jacqui Seidel sprained her ankle yesterday in practice.”

The entire East squad stepped up against the Rams, but the Saints received especially strong performances by Maisey Mulvey (10 digs), Erienne Barry (22 assists) and Sam Szarmach (11 kills).

With Seidel joining fellow senior Caroline Niski on the bench with an ankle sprain, Kull and the Saints will have to depend largely on their youth to pull them through their injuries. 

“Sam Szarmach had a great match,” Kull said. “Nichole Lambert had a great game on the right hand side and Aisha Tan was great too. It’s difficult to put a finger on who played well tonight because they all stepped up.”

If East (29-6) is going to repeat as 4A champions, they are going to need strong performances from their young players, especially Szarmach (a junior), Barry (a freshman) and outside hitter Meghan Niski (a sophomore) to get the defending champions through Saturday’s regional final in the absence of a fully healthy Niski and Seidel.

“It felt like they’d been playing together the whole time,” Kull said of Thursday night’s lineup without Niski and Seidel.  “I’m just elated at how the kids stepped up and played and I’m very comfortable with what we have.”

The Saints will face No. 8 seed Willowbrook at 4 p.m. Saturday to decide the Schaumburg Regional title.

Comments