Naperville Central outlasts North

Brie Isaacson, witness to so many Naperville Central-Naperville North tug-and-pulls over the years, was even floored by what she saw Thursday.

“That was an awesome match on both sides,” said the Redhawks coach, “one of the best matches I’ve ever coached in.”

Winning never hurts the perspective.

Isaacson’s Redhawks, trailing much of the night, fought off six match points in the second set and two more in the third to outlast the host Huskies 24-26, 31-29, 29-27 in a Thursday-night thriller.

In a night full of Naperville Central comebacks, the Redhawks needed one more when Naperville North’s Ashley Crawford put down a tip kill to put her team at 24-22 in the third set. Naperville Central’s Alysia Baznik answered with a kill and ace to knot it at 24-24, the ninth tie of the set.

Naperville North weathered a pair of Redhawks match points, until a kill by Naperville Central middle Nikki Connors put the Redhawks at the brink, up 28-27. Off a block and a touch at her end, Baznik rose up and pounded her 11th kill of the night deep into the Huskies side to finally end it.

“I thought both teams played really hard. It’s always great to beat your rival,” Baznik said. “Both teams had great moments throughout. It was a fun match.”

Naperville Central’s win pulls the Redhawks (10-7, 5-1 DuPage Valley Conference) into a three-way tie with Naperville North (13-4, 5-1) and West Aurora for the conference lead near its midway point. West Aurora won at defending DVC champ West Chicago on Thursday.

It is also the third straight victory for Naperville Central, its longest streak in what has to this point been a hot-and-cold season.

“I feel like this match is going to be a turning point for us,” Baznik said.

Naperville North, which nearly pulled off the impressive double play of beating both West Aurora and Naperville Central in three nights, was left to wonder how it got away.

The Huskies led for most of the first set, despite committing 13 errors. Up 19-13 at one point, Naperville North watched Naperville Central pull ahead 23-22. But a Redhawks service error, a Crawford ace, a Corinne Gajcak tip kill and Naperville Central hitting error allowed the Huskies to stave off the rally.

They weren’t as fortunate in the second set.

Naperville North found itself up 24-20 after Madison Murphy’s kill off the block. A service error, one of the combined 21 in the match, gave Naperville Central back serve. Blocks by Kendall Ward and Connors sandwiched around a Baznik kill tied it at 24-24, and Naperville North later committed two more errors at second-set match points.

The Huskies committed two service errors alone at match point in the second set, and a third followed by a hitting error gave Naperville Central the set.

“We shot ourselves in the foot with serving,” Naperville North coach Jennifer Urban said. “We had match point far too many times not to close it out.”

Redhawks middles Sammie Condon had 7 kills and a block and Connors 5 kills and 3 block. Half of those points came in the third set.

“For us, getting the middles involved revolves solely around ball control,” Isaacson said. “We can’t get them involved if we’re not getting them the ball.”

Crawford had 11 kills, Gajcak and Sami Scroggins 9 and Bailey O’Drobinak 7 for Naperville North.

“It was a great match, and good volleyball on both sides,” Urban said. “Unfortunately we made way too many errors at the end. We’re not satisfied with losing a close three-game match.”