Scouting Fox Valley area 3A/4A girls basketball postseason

Coming off a third-place finish in last year's Class 2A state tournament, St. Edward is moving up this year, preparing for life in 3A.

It doesn't figure to be easy for the 19-7 Lady Wave, starting with their first regional game next Tuesday against 23-4 Kaneland in the Sycamore regional.

The winner of that game likely gets 21-5 Sycamore for the regional title. The Spartans are seeded second in a subsectional of the Genoa-Kingston sectional.

"This is going to be a very tough regional," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. "I think it's going to come down to who is going to execute, keep their turnovers down because all three of us play really good defense and we're tough teams to defend."

St. Edward enters the tournament on a roll, beating Walther Christian last Thursday to earn a share of the Metro Suburban Red title.

The Lady Wave followed Saturday with a win over St. Viator, the No. 1 seed in the Class 3A Woodstock North sectional.

"It's been a really exciting end to the season," Dawson said. "When your back is up to the wall these girls really responded. They were totally focused in practice, they executed all the things we asked them to for both games. They played mentally tough. They played like experienced seniors on the court."

Seniors Yssa Sto. Domingo, Madison Knott, Mariel Franco and Mallory Rejman led the way last week.

Sto. Domingo will enter regional play 28 points short of 1,000 for her career.

"The reason she hasn't got it yet is because of how unselfish she plays," Dawson said. "She would rather have an assist than the points. She loves the team game and having her teammates involved.

"Yssa, she has just been a floor general. In a situation we need a bucket or a big play or to take care of the ball, Yssa takes over and takes control. All the girls on team look to her for her calming presence with the ball in her hand."

Franco poured in 26 points in the win over Walther.

"Mariel is just our spark," Dawson said. "She gets her hands on passes and is very talented scoring in transition. She has learned how to slash and go to the basket with her floater in the paint. And her outside shooting has improved this year."

Knott and Rejman both bring a lot of defense and intangibles to the team.

"Madison, I think she gets overlooked a lot," Dawson said. "She isn't always our leading scorer but she does so many things on the court. Hands down every night she's assigned to the toughest opponent to stop. Without her doing that we wouldn't have the success we've had this year.

"Mallory, she is the person who is always talking and calling out screens and communicating. Her rebounding has gotten better. She's been a huge factor to our success."

Against Kaneland, the Lady Wave will have to contend with one of the best backcourts in the area in seniors Jamie Martens and Jenni Weber.

If the Knights beat St. Edward and play Sycamore for the regional title, they will try to avenage a pair of close Northern Illinois Big XII losses, one in overtime and the other by 3 points.

Because all their 2A opponents started regional play this week, St. Edward is finished with regular season games. The Lady Wave will use the final week of the regular season to practice.

"We tried contacting the 3A schools and nobody wanted to switch to this week. It's going to be a week where we can refocus and rest up and get ready for regionals," said Dawson, who isn't a big fan of the IHSA rule that moved St. Edward to 3A because of last year's success in 2A.

"I understand this year because I have a lot of girls on my team who were part of the success last yer. Do I think it's fair we are playing schools twice as big as us? It is what it is. But what I'm frustrated about is the years to come. Next year we only have one player who was part of our success, and we'll be faced with a couple years being stuck in 3A with girls who had nothing to do with that run. It is what it is."

The winner of the Sycamore regional advances to the Class 3A Genoa-Kingston sectional. Rosary and Aurora Central Catholic also are in the sectional; those two are part of the St. Francis regional and would have to upset No. 1 seed Glenbard South to reach Genoa.

Burlington Central, the Kishwaukee River Conference champs led by the dynamic duo of sophomore Kathryn Schmidt and freshman Elana Wells, is 25-3 and seeded first in the Marengo regional where they could see Genoa-Kingston first and either Rock Falls or Marengo in the regional final.

If the Rockets win the regional, they play the Sycamore regional winner in the sectional semifinals.

Class 4A: Geneva begins defense of the Class 4A state championship at the Schaumburg regional.

The Vikings (23-3) are the No. 1 seed in the Lake Park sectional. If the seeds hold, a matchup with Wheaton Warrenville South would come in the sectional title game. The two schools have met several times in sectional play the last 10 years, including a 54-33 win for the Vikings last year at Glenbard West.

"They beat our butts a couple years in a row and we've got them the last couple," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. "It's a nice little competition."

Before the Vikings get that far, they'll have to get through the Schaumburg regional that includes No. 8 seed Batavia (16-11) playing No. 9 Bartlett (17-10) in the first round. Those two teams met earlier this season with Batavia winning 54-39.

All five starters for Geneva are seniors including four-year starters Margaret Whitley and Stephanie Hart, who both hit game-winning shots in the state semifinals and championship game, respectively, last year.

"It's exciting being the 1 seed," Whitley said. "That's a cool thing. It's definitely a compliment but you don't take it that you are going to win everything. We can't be thinking going in that everyone thinks we're going to win."

Also in the Lake Park sectional, St. Charles North (14-12) earned the 10th seed and plays No. 7 York in the opening round at Wheaton Warrenville South. St. Charles East (13-12) is seeded 11th and plays No. 6 Rolling Meadows at Addison Trail.

The Lake Park sectional winner advances to the Streamwood supersectional against the Dundee-Crown sectional winner.

The host Chargers have won three straight regional titles. They would love to make it four straight and get to come home for the sectional.

"It's an awesome opportunity but we have to put in the work necessary," Dundee-Crown coach Sarah Miller said. "They know what's at stake. We've grinded it out at practice. We know we will get pushed at regionals and we have to come to play. We're excited for the challenge and know it's not going to be an easy ride."

The Chargers open at the South Elgin regional against either No. 7 Jacobs or No. 10 Larkin. No. 3 Cary-Grove and No. 6 South Elgin also are in the regional.

Dundee-Crown (15-8) caught a bad break late in the year when point guard Kennedy White, one of the few seniors on an otherwise young team, suffered a season-ending foot injury at practice Jan. 26.

The next day sophomore Payton Schmidt stepped into the starting lineup and helped her team to a 40-38 win over Fox Valley Conference champion McHenry.

"It was initially four weeks and we thought it could be sooner but the way it looks now she (White) won't be back," Miller said. "The team has rallied around her and she's been a vocal leader for us.

"A thing I love about the team this year is there's not one superstar. We share a lot. That shared kind of ownership, everyone has to do their role. I've been proud of the way we've defended and played at the end."

That balanced attack includes Schmidt at 5 points a game, freshman Gianine Boado at 8 points and 4 rebounds, another freshman Alyssa Crenshaw averaging 6 points and 7 rebounds (including averaging a double-double in her last three games), senior Maddie Tripp (7 ppg, 5 rpg) and sophomore Katelyn Skibinski (4 ppg, 2 apg, 2 spg). Cassidy Randl, Anna Kieltyka and Kendall Kieltyka all average between 2 and 3 points a game. 
"We've kind of had some different players shine at different moments," Miller said.

West Aurora and retiring coach Connie Siljendahl are part of the Neuqua Valley sectional. The Blackhawks finished second in the Upstate Eight Valley behind Bartlett and earned the sixth seed in the Oswego East regional, opening against the host Wolves.