Naperville North responds to adversity

Until adversity strikes, it's awfully hard to gauge how an inexperienced team will respond.

Count Naperville North as up to the challenge.

The short-handed Huskies weathered a one-sided first game and match point in Game 2 to beat West Aurora 12-25, 26-24, 25-19 on Thursday in Naperville.

The Huskies (5-3, 2-0 DuPage Valley Conference) scored the last 3 points of the second game and never trailed in the third.

"I'm proud of how the girls responded," Huskies coach Jennifer Urban said. "It was a total team effort tonight."

It was Naperville North's second win this week without senior outside Sarah Haselhorst.

The third-year varsity player and by far the the most experienced member of a young Huskies team broke the pinkie in her right hand in practice last week. Haselhorst is expected to miss six weeks, which puts her in line for a possible return around regionals. Without Haselhorst, junior Ashley Crawford plays outside for the Huskies with Colleen Larson in the back row. Crawford had 10 kills Thursday.

"Sarah is arguably our best all-around player," Urban said, "but we have to adjust. Ashley Crawford has stepped in and Colleen Larson has done a great job. It's always an adjustment when you're playing next to people on the court, but I think we've had a pretty good showing our first two matches with the new lineup."

West Aurora (8-5, 1-1) nearly pulled off a Naperville sweep, after beating Naperville Central on Tuesday. The Blackhawks dominated Game 1, and down 18-11 in the second came all the way back to take a 24-23 lead on a Lauren Carlini kill.

Carlini, a Wisconsin recruit, sparked the comeback with 4 aces and a tip kill. West Aurora's lead was short-lived, though, as Corinne Gajcak put down a kill for Naperville North to tie it 24-24.

"I think we panicked a little bit," West Aurora coach Kari Nicholson said. "We tended to overplay and we just weren't as loose as we were in the first game. We relaxed and made a nice comeback in the second game but that third game we were just tight and out of rhythm."

Carlini had 10 kills, 7 aces, 6 blocks and 15 assists for West Aurora, a youthful team with three sophomores and two juniors among its rotation.

"We'll learn from tonight's match for the next time we see them," Nichols said.

Crawford followed Gajcack's kill with a tip kill to give Naperville North back the Game 2 lead and Abby Green closed it out with a tip kill.

The Huskies broke out to a 4-0 lead in the third, a pair of Scroggins kills sandwiched around a Green kill and block. At 6-5 Naperville North all but put the match away with 7 straight points, a Scroggins kill starting and ending the run.

"We came out of timeouts and talked and we channeled where we were going to put the ball," Scroggins said. "I think we just picked up our energy and talked more."

Gajcak had 11 kills, Scroggins 7 and Green 6 for Naperville North.

"At different times different people stepped up tonight," Urban said. "I feel good about the direction we're going in."