ST. CHARLES -- In high school volleyball, speed is an asset but not a great equalizer. It is nowhere near the weapon height can be.

Elgin's quick-footed Maroons knew this, and despite digging up a ton of St. Charles North hard spikes and serves Thursday, they wound up on the short end of a 25-13, 25-12 score in their Upstate Eight Conference finale.

"You don't have an answer when you're six inches shorter than the other team," Elgin coach Keith Foster said. "You can try to make adjustments and we did throughout, but in the end our height kind of hurt us a little."

Jen Ask produced six kills, Allie Van Dril five and Karlie Giesler four kills for the vertically dominant North Stars, who dominated the first set from the start and quickly turned a 9-5 lead into a blowout in the second set.

Despite strong digging efforts from Elgin libero Lindsey Hedl, as well as Andrea Zabel and Rachel Roth, the Maroons (8-16, 4-6) were ultimately unable to force the Stars into making big mistakes.

"We wanted to finish out conference with a big win," Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "We need to focus on our side of the floor, make sure that we're playing our game and do everything we have to, so that when they did throw crap back at us we were on our toes and ready for that stuff.

"Their libero was awesome. We just wanted to focus on our side of the court and make sure we were doing everything we need to do."

Six straight North points in the second set, after Zabel had pulled Elgin within 9-5 with an ace, made Elgin's chances of a comeback remote.

"I did like our defense -- it was a scrappy defense and they were intense and fearless in the back row when St. Charles was hitting and we were trying to get by without much in terms of blocking," Foster said.

For North's Van Dril, Giesler, Ask, Emma Headley and Olivia Schneider it had a little more meaning beyond another conference win since they're seniors and it was Stars senior night.

The next big moment for both teams will come in regional play. Ironically, and perhaps as testament to the fact the IHSA needs to go to a better state-wide seeding program, Elgin is a first seed in its regional and St. Charles North (18-7, 8-2) a fifth seed in its regional.

"I was just watching something on TV the other day talking about what a hotbed for volleyball our area in St. Charles had become and over in the DuPage Valley and it really is," Hawkins said. "We know we're going to need the same kind of attitude we showed tonight to advance.

"We've played a tough schedule with some good non-conference opponents so we think we'll be ready."