Scouting DuPage postseason volleyball

Benet coach Brad Baker sizes up the Class 4A volleyball field just about like everybody else.

That is, the chase is on to catch Cary-Grove.

“When you're 35-0,” Baker said, “you are absolutely the favorite.”

Baker's Redwings are probably among the handful of 4A teams with the talent to even imagine taking down defending state champion Cary-Grove. Cary-Grove (35-0) comes in as the No. 1-ranked team in the country, riding a 51-game winning streak.

Benet (29-6) has to like its chances for a long playoff run. After stumbling out of the blocks this season, the Redwings have won their last nine matches, and are 13-1 over their last 14.

Benet is the No. 1 seed at the Romeoville sectional, and is looking at a regional final matchup with Naperville North or Lockport.

“Any time you can win as many in a row as we have it gives your team confidence going in,” said Baker, whose team lost to Quincy in last year's supersectional after taking second in the state in 2008. “These girls have a look about them that they don't think they can lose. That's the kind of confidence you want going into the playoffs.”

Should they get through regionals, the Redwings are likely looking at a sectional semifinal match with Waubonsie Valley or Neuqua Valley. Upstate Eight Valley champion Waubonsie (25-10), looking for its first regional title since 2006, beat Neuqua twice during the regular season including for the conference championship last Tuesday. The Indian Prairie rivals figure to hook up again in Saturday's regional final at Plainfield South. Neuqua (20-10) is in search of its first regional championship.

“We're in a good spot, peaking at the right time,” said Waubonsie coach Kristen Stuart, whose team is 10-2 over its last 12 matches including a win over St. Charles East in the season finale. “Both of our Neuqua wins were emotional and the kids played great. There's probably a good chance we'll play Neuqua again. We just have to stay focused and calm like last time.”

An interesting potential matchup shapes up in the other sectional semifinal at Romeoville. No. 2 seed Hinsdale Central (24-11), which lost to Benet in last year's sectional final, could meet crosstown rival Hinsdale South (29-6) for the second time in two weeks. The Hornets and Pepperdine-bound outside Danielle Romeo beat the Ally Davis-led Red Devils in three games in the season's last week. Hinsdale Central has played much better volleyball in the season's last month, after starting 8-7.

“The season didn't go as ideally as we would have liked,” Hinsdale Central coach Sheralynn Kellough said, “but we gained some invaluable experience along the way. Seeing how we played Saturday (at the Downers Grove North Invite, where Hinsdale Central took second to Marist) makes me excited for what we can do in the postseason.”

Hinsdale Central hopes to win its first sectional championship since 1977, when the Red Devils took third in the state.

Two DuPage County schools also hope to break a long playoff dryspell at the Bartlett sectional.

No. 2 seed York (31-4), which has lost to St. Charles East in the last two sectional finals, is aiming for its first sectional championship since 1993.

Top seed West Chicago can do the Dukes one better.

West Chicago (28-7), which already this season has won its first DuPage Valley Conference championship since 1979, has perhaps its best-ever shot this year at the school's first sectional title. West Chicago's last regional championship came in 1997.

The Wildcats, led by Illinois-bound junior outside Julia Conard, started the season 26-0 but lost 7 matches in the season's final eight days.

“We're refining our skills in practice. Mentally we're going for a fresh start,” Wildcats coach Kris Hasty said. “As far as the timing of those losses, if they would have been spread more throughout the season mentally it might have been a little bit different. But we're putting that behind us as of today. It's anybody's ballgame, and we're giving it our best shot.”

Should West Chicago get past regionals, it could meet up with three-time defending sectional champion St. Charles East (25-10) in one sectional semifinal, with York potentially playing Batavia in the other semifinal. No. 4 seed St. Charles East could first have to get past No. 5 Glenbard West in regionals. The Hilltoppers' 25 wins are the most since the school's 1983 state championship team.

Class 3A: Like Daylight Savings Time and Halloween, it's almost an inevitable event this time of year a playoff matchup between St. Francis and Joliet Catholic.

The two powers have met in the postseason the last four years. St. Francis came out on top in the AA state semifinals in 2006 and 2007 3A supersectional. Joliet Catholic has won the last two playoff meetings, in the 2008 supersectional and 2009 sectional final that match at St. Francis.

This year two-time defending 3A state champion Joliet Catholic (28-7) is the top seed at the Rosary sectional. St. Francis (28-7), which lost to JCA in three games at the Asics Challenge in October, is No. 2 followed by Rosary and Lemont.

“Hopefully we can come together and be consistent and play our best volleyball at the end of the season,” said Spartans coach Peg Kopec, whose team first hosts a regional this week. “Our sectional has been chock full of talent the past few years. This year is no different.”

Big difference, though, is that this year's St. Francis-JCA match would by no means be the de facto state championship it was last year.

Five-time state champion Breese Mater Dei (29-1), last year's runner-up, was 30th nationally in the lastest PrepVolleyball.com rankings and considered by many to be the odds-on favorite in 3A this year.

“In the rankings they are the best, actually,” Kopec said, “but who knows? We haven't seen them this year. But they are traditionally a strong school and supposedly have one of the best teams in the state this year.”