West Aurora sweeps Naperville C.
West Aurora held a ceremony before its match with Naperville Central Thursday night to honor junior Lauren Carlini, who traveled to Turkey this summer to represent the United States on the national team at the Federation Internationale de Volleyball U-18 World Championships.
Naperville Central then came out and looked ready to spoil the Blackhawks’ feel-good night, racing to a 17-6 lead in the opening game.
Just as quickly, West Aurora got the momentum back. This time the Blackhawks never let up.
Carlini and her improved supporting cast went on a 20-7 run to close Game 1, then led for most of the second game for a 26-24, 25-17 victory.
“I was a little nervous,” the Wisconsin-bound Carlini said of the pregame ceremony. “I don’t like being in the spotlight too much and having my name announced and everything. I was surprised to have them do that for me and I’m very grateful to be recognized like that.”
West Aurora (8-5, 2-0) is counting on players like outsides Kelsey Richmond and middles Lauren Wilson, Peyton McKenzie and sophomore newcomer Abriya Zeitz to give the Blackhawks a more balanced attack.
It worked Thursday with Richmond leading with 8 kills, Carlini adding 7 and Zeitz chipping in 6. McKenzie stepped up with several key rocket jump serves at the end of both games.
“Lauren is an excellent player and this year we have some people to put the ball to,” West Aurora coach Kari Nicholson said. “We looked early a little panicked like it was our first game. I think we might have been jittered out there. Once we calmed down it was better.”
Redhawks coach Brie Isaacson liked what she saw from her team at the start. Four blocks by Nikki Connors in a 9-0 spurt put Naperville Central ahead 10-2.
The Redhawks (4-4, 1-1) looked in control up 17-6 and 19-11. A 5-point run from Analise Hanson brought the Blackhawks within 20-19.
West Aurora caught Naperville Central at 23. The Blackhawks held off a Redhawk game point when Central committed 1 of its 8 first-game hitting errors.
Tied at 24, McKenzie fired back-to-back aces off her jump serve, the second one dropping in deep when the Redhawks let it go thinking it would fly long.
“We had some tempo, some good momentum and somehow it just stopped,” Isaacson said. “We struggled to get back into it and unfortunately we never found it the rest of the match. I don’t want to take anything away from West Aurora. They are a good team.”
Carlini said a key to the Blackhawks’ comeback was figuring out to hit around Naperville Central’s block. That and calming down.
“They were getting some pretty good blocks on us,” Carlini said. “We had to tell us we have to hit high hand, we have to be smart about the plays that we are making. After that we played volleyball like we usually do.”
Naperville Central held its last lead of Game 2 at 12-11. Again it was McKenzie, who follows Carlni’s powerful jump serve in the rotation with one of her own, serving the Blackhawks from a 19-16 lead to 24-17.
Zeitz, tentative on a couple overpasses early, put away two that Naperville Central sent over struggling to control McKenzie’s serve. The Blackhawks won match point on a Central service error.
“Abriya, new to varsity, she has done amazing the last few games, good blocks, good hits for us,” Carlini said. “I told her she got all these overpasses, I told her you have to go up and kill those. The second game she went up and murdered it. She stepped up, Im real proud of her.”
Alysia Baznik (6 kills, 16 assists), Kendall Ward (4 kills, 2 digs) and Nikki Connors (5 blocks) led the Redhawks.
“Lauren Carlini is a great player and I thought we managed that fairly well,” Isaacson said. “She’s going to get her kills, there’s nothing we can do about it, but we got away from the rest of the things that makes our team successful.”