August 23. 2012
SCN stats: T. Krage 6 kills and 4 blocks; Grauzinis 5 kills; Stone, 3 kills, 3 blocks; Carroll 3 kills; Wohlert 9-point service and 3 aces.
St. Charles North girls volleyball falls in semis of Plainfield North tournament
By JAY SCHWAB - jschwab@shawmedia.com
Kane County Chronicle August 26. 2012
PLAINFIELD – The St. Charles North girls volleyball team picked up its first two losses Saturday, but not before extending its hot start to the season at the Plainfield North Invite.
After winning its first two matches of the tournament on Friday, the North Stars ran the table in pool play by defeating Jones Prep on Saturday morning. That win advanced North to the semifinals of the 16-team tournament before the North Stars fell to powerhouses Providence and Marian Catholic.
Despite the two defeats, North senior libero Alex Busch is happy with her team's 5-2 overall record and fourth-place showing in the tournament.
"It was a big deal for us," Busch said. "We were really excited to get to that final four stage of the tournament."
In the third-place match against Marian, North played a sluggish Game 1, falling 25-13, but was in solid position in the second game, taking three, late, one-point leads, the last of which at 21-20.
But Spartans standout Amber Clay notched kills on two of the next three points and a net violation wiped away a would-be North kill as Marian scored the final five points to win the match.
North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said she learned a lot from the two-day tournament – most of it encouraging – and came away especially impressed by the play of middle blocker Emily Carroll.
"Emily Carroll was our big surprise this weekend," Hawkins said. "She really stepped it up. I was amazed at the things that she did for this team this weekend. She's only a sophomore, and I'm really looking for her to just kind of take over the net."
Outside hitter Taylor Krage remained a focal point of North's attack, and Busch likes the way North's defense is coming together.
"We work really, really hard on defense and serve-receive in practice, and to see it transforming into games, that's awesome, because that is our biggest strength right now," Busch said.
The tournament might be one of the final looks Hawkins has at the North Stars – at least from the bench – for a while. Hawkins plans to take a maternity leave after the anticipated birth of a baby boy in the next week or two.
"It's going to be a tough transition but we kind of have already started to work our way into that so it's not [as hard] when she does leave," Busch said, referring to North assistants taking a larger role in practice.
The impending arrival has naturally become a hot topic among the North Stars.
"The girls keep joking that I'm going to have the baby tonight so if we we had played one more third game, I might have [delivered] the baby," Hawkins joked.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Batavia advanced to the championship match of the bronze bracket, where the Bulldogs fells to Lincoln-Way North, 15-25, 25-22, 25-20. Batavia finished the tournament with a 2-3 mark to move to 4-3 overall on the season.
Heather Meyer (35 kills), Kristen Koncelik (32 kills, seven blocks), Audrey Faulhaber (87 assists), Anysa Ocon (29 digs, 23 kills) and Jessica Hartmann (41 digs) led the way for Batavia, which beat Bolingbrook for the second time this season in the bronze bracket semifinal, 25-18, 18-25, 25-20.
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