Naperville Central turns it around against WW South

Naperville Central was not too happy about its last match against Wheaton Warrenville South.

"At the Wheaton Classic that was a match that we're not necessarily too proud of," junior setter Andi Davenport said. "I'm happy we got to come out today and play a lot better match then we did last time. I know I wasn't happy with how I played. We weren't playing our best and we didn't play together as a team. (This win) is a good way to tell how much we've improved."

Tuesday the Redhawks were all smiles after pulling out a 25-23, 25-21 home DuPage Valley Conference victory over the visiting Tigers. Both girls volleyball games went down to the wire, but Naperville Central (11-9, 3-3) pulled out the night's biggest points when they mattered most.

"I thought it was nice to see our girls stay composed," said Redhawks coach Jeff Danbom, whose team was swept by Wheaton Warrenville South at last month's Wheaton Classic. "Even when we went down 23-22 in the first set, to pull that one out and then in the second set when they started pushing on us … it was nice to see us push back and to hang on."

In the opener there were nine ties early on and then the teams also drew even at 21, 22 and 23. But the Tigers (7-13, 2-3), who had moved ahead 23-22 after Rachel Burau set up Erin Staunton for a kill, missed a serve and the Redhawks then closed out the game with an ace by freshman Sarah Schank and the clinching kill from Sam Herron.

"When push comes to shove we're just not executing and we're missing way too many serves," Tigers coach Bill Schreier said. "You miss the amount of serves we did and you lose the match combined by six points … . I can't take any solace in that. We'll get back at it tomorrow and see if we can get ready for Thursday against Wheaton North."

To their credit, after falling behind 14-7 in the second game, the Tigers stormed back to tie things up at 15-15. Burau was sharp while finishing with 18 assists and 2 kills, and junior outside hitter Kristin Martin led the attack with 8 kills.

But the Redhawks regrouped and closed out the match with a 6-3 run that featured aces from Phoebe Havenaar and Andi Davenport.

Davenport said Tuesday's outcome is a nice barometer of how the team has progressed.

"We've definitely been working hard in practice and trying to learn from our losses," she said. "We've been doing the best we can to improve from what we'd be doing before."