Meagan Smith leads St. Charles East past Hinsdale Central

St. Charles East setter Megan Schildmeyer has confidence in all of her teammates but with the game on the line Wednesday she looked for one person.

Schildmeyer found fellow senior Meagan Smith time and again down the stretch and Smith responded by spiking four of her 14 kills as the visiting Saints held off Hinsdale Central 25-20, 22-25, 25-19 in a non-conference thriller.

“Every time I set Meagan I knew I could rely on her to put it away,” Schildmeyer said. “She got hot and they couldn’t stop her so I just kept feeding her the ball because I knew she’d put it away.”

Hinsdale Central (5-2) made a great comeback to win Game 2 and overcame an early deficit in Game 3 to take the lead three times, the last coming at 13-12 on a Saints error.

But the Saints (4-0) responded with five straight points, including kills from Kyla Augustine and middle Mikaela Mosquera.

Smith had kills after the Red Devils pulled within 17-15 and 18-17, then added two more during a closing 6-2 run. But she refused to take all the credit.

“All of the seniors really stepped up and that was great, but everyone else helped out a lot,” Smith said. “Everything worked. Our digs were on point, our sets were awesome and our kills were hitting the floor.”

They needed to be because the Red Devils gave the Saints all they could handle. San Diego recruit Lauren Fuller had a monster effort, pounding 19 kills, including 10 in Game 2 as the Red Devils erased a five-point deficit.

St. Charles East led nearly the entire way, only to see the Red Devils even the match with an 8-1 run. Fuller spiked kills on the last three points and had 10 of her team’s final 12 kills in that set.

“They’re a very good team,” Schildmeyer said. “They brought it today but we knew that if we played strong, we [could win].

“I think it really showed us where we’re at, showed us our strengths and weaknesses and what we’re going to have to work on when we get back in practice.”

The Red Devils, who visit Waubonsie Valley on Thursday, have to work on their starts. St. Charles East scored the first six points of the first game and the Red Devils never got closer than three points despite battling hard.

“It seemed kind of like a lack of focus,” Hinsdale Central coach Kelly Stapleton said. “I think it was a good learning experience for our kids.

“I think the matches we’ve played so far we’ve been a little bit better out of system and [had] fewer unforced errors. I’m sure [the Red Devils] are frustrated so now we have to manage that and deal with our frustration and turn it around because we play again tomorrow.”

Schildmeyer had 19 assists, eight service points and three kills for St. Charles East, while Mosquera had five kills and four blocks.

Sophomore setter Morgan Kull added seven service points and six assists and defensive specialist Chloe Rojas had three aces.

Hinsdale Central setter Brooke Istvan dished 30 assists, while Meg Irvin added eight points and four kills.