There are times that St. Charles North setter Mia McCall has to remind herself how much fun it can be to team up in the front row with outside hitter Haley Burgdorf.
McCall experienced one of those moments Monday in the North Stars’ season-opening match.
“I came up to her after one of her good hits and was like, ‘OK, it’s kind of nice to be your setter,’” McCall said. ”It makes me feel good.”
North Stars fans should get used to the combination for the next couple seasons. McCall and the Penn State-bound Burgdorf, both juniors, are the engine that will power the North Stars.
McCall ran the show and found Burgdorf often in a 25-17, 25-20 nonconference win over Rosary.
Burgdorf finished with 12 kills and Amber Czerniak added five for St. Charles North (1-0). Claire McEniry paced Rosary (0-1) with six kills, while Reese Gilla added four.
In the second game, when the North Stars started to pull away, Burgdorf put down four kills and McCall contributed an ace during a 6-2 run that pushed the lead to 19-11.
The chemistry is real.
“I’m grateful to have her as my setter,” Burgdorf said of McCall. “She’s so amazing and kind and just able to adjust to anyone really and make them a better player.”
Burgdorf will grab much of the attention as one of the top players in the state, but McCall is the player that keeps the North Stars running efficiently.
While she knows she has a safety valve in Burgdorf, St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins was pleased with the way McCall kept everybody involved in the season opener.
“She’s great,” Hawkins said. “She’s putting up beautiful balls right now and doing a really good job of kind of spreading it around, too. We really want to get the ball to Sidney (Wright), as well. She got the ball to Amber a lot (Monday) as well. That was nice to see.”
The fact that McCall and her main options are all juniors? It means they have played together plenty. Freshman middle hitter Brynn Hopkins even got into the action with a pair of kills.
“I definitely have that connection with them already,” McCall said. “We have that hitter-setter connection. I feel like it’s just a calm place on the court and just a good place to be.
“We’re all so close so I just enjoy playing with them. Even if we’re not playing well, it’s still a great place to be.”
McCall has some other tricks up her sleeve as well. She also had a kill Monday, but there will be matches where she’ll be joining her friends on the front line with another setter distributing the ball.
“She’s a really good hitter — that’s what a lot of people don’t know about her,” Hawkins said. “We have a couple of other setters on the team that we can throw in at any point in time and allow Mia to hit, too.
“She can do a lot for us that way.”
For the most part, however, the North Stars will let Burgdorf do the heavy lifting on the outside. She can put the ball away from anywhere and ended Monday’s match with a back-row kill.
“There have been a few players in my time where it didn’t matter what you did,” Hawkins said. “You could have three blockers on them and you still weren’t going to stop them.
“Haley is one of those girls right now. She’s hard to stop no matter what you do.”
And Burgdorf is happy that it’s McCall who is setting her up.
“It’s amazing,” Burgdorf said. “Mia just adjusts so easily to me. It makes our connection stand out so much on the court. It’s just fun to see us have fun and be able to kill it out there.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
