Suburban Life volleyball notes: Addy Horner, Emma Delaney hoping St. Francis dances deep into playoffs again

St. Francis senior outside hitter and setter Addy Horner is a veteran of the big dance in girls volleyball as a four-year starter and key component to the Spartans’ Class 3A state championships the past two seasons.

There’s also her dancing before and during matches with senior middle hitter and good friend Emma Delaney.

”She loves to show it off,” Horner said. “She loves dancing. She loves tap.”

Even though Horner lives in Wheaton and Delaney in Glen Ellyn, they often ride to school together. This season, they are the only returning starters after nine seniors graduated.

Horner, verbally committed to Wisconsin, reached 1,000 career assists at Batavia Sept. 26 and is quickly approaching 1,000 career kills.

”She’s taken on a lot of pressure. This year I think she’s carried more, being our go-to hitter,” St. Francis coach Lisa Ston said. “The rest of the crew is blending well finally. We’re coming into our own.”

Third-year varsity player Delaney began club volleyball in fifth grade with aspirations of also playing in college before a series of injuries.

”I don’t think volleyball in college is going to be, but volleyball’s always going to be in my heart,” Delaney said. “It’s always a motivation for us, having a big target on our backs. We know we have the skills to get to where we want. It’s just putting those all together and getting into the groove and seeing how far we get.”

Besides graduations, the Spartans have tried multiple lineups because of injuries. Even Delaney, one of last season’s block leaders, has played right-side hitter and outside hitter once. They tried a three-setter offense early on, but Ston said “it was just a little too crazy.”

As for the good craziness, Horner and Delaney often lead the creation of TikTok team videos before matches.

”They’re both a lot of fun. They have great personalities,” Ston said. “If you watch them, you’ll see them dancing on the court and then they focus on the point. But they’ve always kind of been that way. It’s nice to have a team with personality. It makes it that much more fun to coach.”

And yes, Delaney can dance, even wearing athletic shoes. She took classes twice a week for nine years until high school.

”It always comes out,” said Delaney, laughing. “My big thing was tap. I was always a pretty good tap dancer. I did hip hop and jazz, too.”

Joining Horner at setter is full-rotation senior Jenna Glaudel after missing 2023 with a torn ACL. Glaudel recently overcame a pulled muscle. Junior outside hitter Mackenzie Krzus, a setter in club, is emerging among kill leaders. Defensive standouts include seniors Dylan Kokkinos at libero and Sophia Hernandez.

”(Our goal is) just reaching our full potential,” Horner said. “It’s super fun having a ton of new players and then we have a ton of versatile players.”

Reversal of fortune

Westmont won the IMSA Tournament Sept. 14 with a 5-0 round-robin record after going 0-5 there in 2023. The Sentinels (14-10) also have already doubled last year’s victory total.

”Winning the IMSA Tournament was the highlight of my volleyball career,” senior Briseis Stanescu said. ”In the past, we haven’t won tournaments like that. Winning just five games in a day was insane for us. It was the big point for the program.”

This is the second season for head coach Jason Gentile and assistant Chris Marsik with several returnees from last year’s 7-25 finish. Gentile previously coached the freshmen at Hinsdale South and Marsik coached the junior varsity. Gentile took over the JV after Marsik briefly left coaching.

”We changed a lot (last season), tried to put some new things in. We had a lot of injuries. That really slowed down some progress,” Gentile said. ”This year we have a really good sophomore class and four really talented seniors (Jade Curtis, Elizabeth De La Garza, Kendal Solik and Stanescu) who provide a lot of leadership.”

Injured last season, Curtis has a team-best 18 blocks. According to MaxPreps, sophomore Kotryna Vanagas is among the top 2A hitters with 153 kills followed by Stanescu (81) and Curtis (57).Vanagas also leads in digs (269) along with Stanescu (177) and sophomore Alice O’Connor (144). Sophomore Ryley Johnson and De La Garza have 113 and 108 assists.

”It’s just a whole new program. It’s just been really fun, especially with the team chemistry that we have,” Stanescu said. “Growing together just makes everything more fun. Our energy when we’re all having fun is just everything.”