Saints' comeback stuns Evanston

Evanston's Elly Knepper and Maddie Fitzpatrick try to block as Haley Streich of St. Charles East spikes the ball.
(Patrick Gleason/For the Sun-Times News Group)

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NORMAL -- St. Charles setter Laura Homann admitted she had no idea how much the Saints trailed by in Game 1 of their Class 4A semifinal against Evanston.

“You really can’t see the scoreboard,” Homann said. “I didn’t know we were down by that many points. I guess it’s a good thing.”

Down 21-16 in Game 1, the Saints (37-4) stormed back behind seniors Homan, Haley Streich and Caroline Niski to defeat Evanston 26-24, 25-20 and advance to today’s 7:30 p.m. championship match.

“Wow, that was close,” St. Charles coach Jennie Kull said. “I said at the beginning of the year we were young (two freshmen, one sophomore starter) and that was one of the things that concerned us. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Two attack errors by Evanston (30-11) and a kill by sophomore Meghan Niski got St. Charles within 21-20. A Streich kill gave the Saints a 24-23 lead, but a kill by Ali Gossen pulled Evanston even. Back-to-back kills by Streich and Caroline Niski closed out the game.

“The arena doesn’t look as big as it did last year,” Streich said. “Being here last year really helped. We (the seniors) tried to clam down the other girls and not let nerves get the best of us.”

St. Charles jumped out to a 22-14 lead in Game 2 and struggled to put Evanston away. But Caroline Niski’s kill ended a 4-0 Wldkits run before Meghan Niski’s kill sent St. Charles into the title match.

“Sometimes it’s a matter of just settling in and getting into a rhythm,” Kull said. “Tonight our seniors stepped up and did a real nice job.”

Streich led St. Charles with 11 kills, Caroline Niski had 10 kills and Homann added 31 assists. Freshman libero Maisey Mulvey had 17 digs for the Saints.

Gossen led Evanston with 10 kills and Megan McCareins added six kills. Hannah Folz had 22 assists.