Benet takes Wheaton title
What sophomore Sara Nielsen and her Benet teammates are accomplishing is pretty impressive, yet the setter makes it all sound so simple.
After Nielsen helped the Redwings breeze to a fourth straight Wheaton Classic volleyball championship this weekend, she credited the team's strong defense with creating more opportunities for the hitters. When asked about taking control of such a potent attack, she said her job is easy since all of her teammates are capable of putting the balls away.
"There's really not like a wrong person to set," Nielsen said after recording 19 assists in a 25-10, 25-18 defeat of Libertyville in the title match at Wheaton Warrenville South.
The Redwings, now 14-0 on the year, swept Wheaton North in the quarterfinals and then Downers Grove North in the semis, before taking on a Libertyville team that picked up impressive wins over Marist and Sandburg on its way to the finals. But the Wildcats (16-4) fell behind 16-3 in the opener and, while playing much better in the second set, just couldn't slow the Redwings down in the finals.
"We can smile about it because we knew were going to run out of gas," Libertyville coach Greg Loika said. "We played a very long day of volleyball against some really great teams."
The Wildcats trailed just 8-7 in the second game following a kill by middle hitter Alex Bassler, who was named to the all-tourney team. But Benet countered with a kill by Veronica Snelling off a good set by Nielsen, and before the Wildcats knew it, they trailed 17-8 and could not avoid the sweep.
Snelling paced the Redwings with 8 kills against Libertyville, while Tiger Classic MVP Rachel Fara added 5 kills for the champs, who have taken home top honors at this tourney in six of the last seven years. Libero Natalie Canulli led the solid defensive effort with 17 digs and landed herself a spot on the all-tourney squad.
"We were just really focused on taking care of what we needed to do on our side of the court and focused on taking care of business and not letting anything stop us," Nielsen said. "I would definitely have to go with the defense (as our biggest strength). We definitely get to give the hitters the most amount of attempts because the 'D' just picks up so many balls which is really great because we have so many great hitters that can put the ball away."
Downers Grove North (7-5) outlasted Sandburg 27-25, 11-25, 27-25 to take third place, while Marist knocked off Wheaton North in three games to take sixth. The Falcons, now 12-5 on the year, were led on defense by all-tourney libero Erica Walker, while Grace Tiesman had 25 kills and 5 blocks on the weekend.
Naperville North defeated Prairie Ridge to place seventh out of the 24 teams, while Hinsdale Central won the silver division for ninth place and Neuqua Valley finished 12th.