Benet starts with victory over St. Charles East
Benet won't get too caught up in one Tuesday night August win.
But Brad Baker couldn't have asked for a better start.
Baker's Redwings dominated a good St. Charles East team, beating the host Saints 25-18, 25-20 in the season opener for both teams.
St. Charles East led for just two points the entire match, and Benet never game up the lead after 3-3 ties in both games.
“That's the thing — it's just the first night,” Baker said. “We want to continue to get better as the season goes along. It was a fun night and a great way to start.”
It was also a far cry from Benet's first match a year ago. An error-filled loss at home to St. Charles East set the tone for the Redwings' bumpy 4-3 start.
This year, it appears, the Redwings aren't getting too caught up in their own gaudy expectations. They just want to play.
“Our goal was to start out strong and have fun. Good things happen when you just go out and have fun,” said Benet senior middle Meghan Haggerty. “We're trying not to put too much pressure on ourselves.”
Wisconsin recruit Haggerty's 10 kills led a balanced Benet attack that controlled play at the net. Virginia Tech-bound Jenna Jendryk had 7 kills, Nora Young 5, Gabby Pethokoukis 4 and Madeline Haggerty 3. Benet setter Hannah Kaminsky, in her first varsity start, did a good job distributing the wealth with 26 assists.
“We have more variety in our offense,” Haggerty said, “and that makes it difficult for opponents. It's hard to know where the ball is going.”
Haggerty had 4 kills in Game 1, putting down a big one to put Benet ahead 16-10. She threw down another at game point. St. Charles East had difficulty putting up a block against Benet's big hitters, particularly in Game 1, a fact not lost on Saints coach Jennie Kull.
“Our weaknesses obviously got exposed,” Kull said. “We haven't seen an offense like Benet's, and it's good to see it at the very beginning. We were confident in the offense we had, but it doesn't matter if you don't block better and pass better and serve better.”
Benet's lead was just 10-8 in Game 2 after a service error, the Redwings' sixth of the match. But Jendryk put down a pair of kills, and after a Saints net violation Jendryk kept a rally alive and then boomed a crosscourt kill for a commanding 14-8 lead.
It is easy to get caught up in Benet's imposing net game, but Baker was just as happy with things that don't get noticed.
“We gotta do all the other little things,” Baker said. “You gotta have hitters to be one of the best teams, but it's all the other little things that you have to spend the majority of the time on. It's like hitting home runs in baseball. If you only hit home runs, you're not going to win games. You have to field, you have to play defense, you have to pitch. We need to do all those other little things.”
Meghan Niski had 6 kills, 4 of them in Game 2, Nicole Woods and Nichole Lambert 3 and Erienne Barry 12 assists for St. Charles East.