Girls volleyball: St. Charles North survives late surge to hand Oswego its first loss

ST. CHARLES — St. Charles North was trying its best to break away from Oswego.

After winning the first set Wednesday rather handily, the North Stars found themselves in a back-and-forth contest with the Panthers throughout the second set.

[ Photos: Oswego vs. St. Charles North volleyball ]

But with the score knotted at 18-18, a pancake from Mia McCall gave them the spark they needed to close it out.

McCall’s clutch defensive play, along with some key blocks from Brianna Dale and Brynn Hopkins helped the North Stars go on a 7-3 run to end the set and secure a 25-19, 25-21 victory over the previously unbeaten Panthers on Wednesday.

“That pancake just showed our scrappiness,” St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said. “We talk about having that mentality, so to see them put that into play is always really nice to see.”

While the defense was good to end the match, it was even better at the start. The North Stars (13-3) charged out to a 17-8 lead in the first set, mostly thanks to focusing their front line on blocking Oswego’s outside hitter duo of Long Beach State recruit Sidney Hamaker and Western Michigan commit Mia Jurkovic.

Hawkins, who was honored before the match after winning her 400th career match with a straight-sets victory over Batavia on Tuesday, knew that in order to get an advantage over the Panthers, they needed to put the pressure on early, which is something she felt hadn’t been done recently.

“We talked before the match about starting off super aggressive and how that’s been one of our downfalls lately,” Hawkins said. “That’s one of the things we do best, so we needed to make sure that we were coming out strong with that and not waiting for the game to come to us.”

One player that also benefitted from the strong start was Penn State commit Haley Burgdorf. She finished the match with 12 kills, four of which came during the hot start, along with some key digs in the back row.

“We knew we needed to start off 10 times stronger than they will because if we start off stronger than they will, they’ll get into a rut, which they did,” Burgdorf said. “It just set us off strong from the start and built our confidence so much more.”

The Panthers had a big chance to shift the momentum in their favor near the end of the first set. After the North Stars got to a 24-15 set point, Oswego managed to tally off four straight points before Burgdorf ended the set with a kill.

Despite not winning the set, Oswego coach Gary Mosley said that that stretch was crucial for some big runs to keep pace with North in the second set.

“That’s all you can ask for in the moment,” Mosley said. “Even if you drop that set, we instilled that momentum, and that’s what we did in the second set and had some good runs right away. But a couple things stole some energy, and you’ve got to be able to persevere.”

Oswego suffered their first loss of the season after starting out 8-0. Hamaker led the Panthers with six kills, while Jurkovic finished right behind her with five.

“That’s a team where you’ve got to meet the moment,” Mosley said. “We can learn from the things we did well and the things we didn’t do so well. Due to my inability to get them there, they weren’t able to, and that’s on me. So I’ve got to get better at getting them better.”