Girls Volleyball: Freshman Haley Burgdorf’s 14 kills help rally St. Charles North past Wheaton Warrenville South

ST. CHARLES – For Haley Burgdorf, it isn’t a matter of the volleyball finding her wherever she is on the court.

Burgdorf, the St. Charles North freshman outside hitter, will instead find the ball and make any given swing count.

“[Setter] Jessica [Parker] has a lot of trust in her,” North Stars coach Lindsay Hawkins said following the North Stars’ 14-25, 25-22, 25-22 win over Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday. “Defensively, [Burgdorf] makes things happen because she reads well and then moves to the ball.”

“She’s going to be a dominant player for a long time because does a good job [of it all],” Hawkins continued.

Confidence in Burgdorf’s right arm, evidently, isn’t light at all. But, it also comes simply by “knowing who I am.”

“My confidence is just going on the court and knowing who I am,” Burgdorf said following her 14-kill performance. “And helping the team with everything, and just trying to be the best out there. Especially because I am a freshman. It’s hard, but I love this.”

“I love volleyball,” Burgdorf continued. “So, when I play, I just play and it really helps me.”

The passion can even visibly extend into the huddle on a given timeout.

“I do embrace that [I have to be plugged in at all times] because I know I got to put the ball in play. I got to get the ball up and I got to help this team and continue [winning],” Burgdorf said.

Katherine Scherer had six kills, while Alexis Bardouniotis had four kills and an ace. Parker, an Elon University recruit, had two kills and an ace at setter.

The North Stars (7-4, 1-0) started slow with a quick loss in the first set, but roared back to a 6-0 lead in the second.

The Tigers (5-5, 0-1) were eventually able to come back from a five-point deficit at 24-17 awaiting set point to make it 24-22 thanks to two attack errors, a kill and block apiece from Lauren Coyne and a kill from Rebecca Bellows.

Burgdorf, however, had other plans and spiked a kill to send it into a third set.

“[The Tigers] having [Bellows] back makes it a huge difference with their team,” Hawkins said. “She’s a great setter. So we knew it was going to be a very tough match and she would spread the offense a lot and get her hitters going. She sets beautiful balls, so they always have something good to work with.”

“For us to be able to play some really solid defense and get out blocking involved in the second and third set, I thought was really good,” Hawkins continued.

The Tigers did bounce back to an early 8-3 lead in the third set, but the North Stars battled back. Knotted at 21-all in the third set, service and attack errors ultimately came to the Tigers’ demise. Of the final eight points the North Stars scored, eight came from either an attack or service error.

WW South was led in a balanced effort by Lily King (six kills, three aces), Bellows (five kills, two aces) and Coyne (five kills, three aces).

“We became tentative. It’s really what it came down to,” Tigers coach Bill Schreier said. “Hats off to them. They were able to put it away. But you miss four serves in the last six servers, you’re not going to win too much. That’s a point in time where we need to be able to push points and we didn’t. But ultimately, we let it go earlier. We had a nice controlling lead and we gave it up.”