QUICK READ: St. Charles East, North set for rematch at sectionals

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Hours removed from hoisting and posing with her own team’s regional plaque, St. Charles North girls volleyball coach Lindsey Hawkins found herself on the floor for St. Charles East’s celebration on Saturday afternoon.

She sidled next to Saints coach Jennie Kull and offered two words.

“Did you just hear the North coach say ‘Good luck’ to me? She just did,” smiled Kull. “You should write that down.”

East and North met under complementary yet combative circumstances during the regular season, wearing special uniforms as a joint fundraiser for breast cancer awareness in the heat of the Upstate Eight Conference race. Their rematch in an IHSA Class 4A Geneva Sectional semifinal at 6 p.m. today offers more of the same; Hawkins hasn’t lost her fondness for Kull, her former coach, and the Saints still honor the North Stars’ effort during a 21-25, 25-12, 25-22 East victory in September.

“We just know that we’re going to have to play our best match in order to beat them because they’re a great team,” Saints senior outside hitter Jacqui Seidel said. “They’re very aggressive in the front row, they have great blockers, great defense.”

East rallied to beat Willowbrook for the Schaumburg Regional title after losing the first game, the same pattern to victory it took against North.

Earlier Saturday afternoon, Geneva swept Batavia in two games for the third time this season to win the Addison Trail Regional. Although Vikings senior outside hitters Kelsey Augustine and Lauren Wicinski were familiar with the Blazers’ gym – they played there twice during girls basketball sectionals last spring – players appreciated the chance to return to Geneva.

The Vikings will host York in a 7 p.m. semifinal.

“Personally, I’m pumped,” Geneva setter Brooke Morphis said. “I think the crowd will be huge and we’ll have another one of those games where we click.”

New to them: Marmion (21-5-1) and Freeport (20-2-4) already have set new school precedents for boys soccer this season, and the winner of today’s IHSA Class 2A Barrington Supersectional will continue on the furthest march in program history.

The Cadets captured their 15th consecutive match Saturday by avenging their most recent loss. Sam Duffield tallied the go-ahead goal in a 2-1 victory against Wheaton Academy, Marmion’s rival from the Suburban Christian Conference.

Freeport won the Northern Illinois Conference-10 title behind sophomore forward Mike Gordon, who enters today’s 5 p.m. match with 27 goals. Pretzels goalkeeper Scott Kesler has recorded 16 shutouts.

Costumed crowd: East volleyball fans faced a daunting challenge Saturday: how to honor Halloween when the school’s colors already matched the holiday’s palette?

While a woman clad in an orange and black skeleton sweatshirt and mask represented the best of both worlds, other Saints spectators simply wore their costumes to stand out from the Willowbrook faithful. A Conehead, ketchup bottle, mustard bottle and hillbilly (what else to call someone sporting a long black wig, Billy Bob teeth and a Bubba Gump shrimp cap?) were among the originally – and inspiringly – attired.

“We had an idea that they were going to do it,” Saints sophomore outside hitter Meghan Niski said, “but when we came out to warm up and we saw them, that made us laugh and that helped us relax a little bit.”

The ketchup bottle shook things up before Game 2, briefly running the floor to fire up the cheering section.

• Kevin Druley is a sportswriter for The Chronicle. He can be reached at 630-845-5347 or kdruley@kcchronicle.com.

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