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Benet finishes the job, claims volleyball title

NORMAL — Focused, determined, dominant.

And state champion.

The Benet girls volleyball team had this night on its mind for a full year. In fact the Redwings thought of little else after losing to Mother McAuley in last year's state final.

Controlling both sides of the net from start to finish, Benet capped off its magical season Saturday night, rolling over Libertyville 25-10, 25-10 in the Class 4A championship at Redbird Arena.

The state title is Benet's third in the last four years and came in less than 40 minutes. The 20 points the Redwings allowed were the fewest in any state championship match in any class since the advent of rally scoring in 2003. Benet (41-1) also set a program record for wins in a season and ran its record over the last four years to 156-12.

“At the beginning of the season, we knew this is where we wanted to be,” said Benet senior Dana Griffin, who had 8 kills in the win. “This was our goal from the beginning and I'm just so proud of my team. Last year was so hard and we did not want that to happen again. We knew this was the spot we wanted to be in, and we were not going to take no for an answer tonight.”

The Redwings, who also defeated Libertyville in two games at the Wheaton Classic in September, left little doubt of their determination throughout the match. They rolled out to a 7-2 lead in Game 1, and even though Libertyville (35-7), playing in its first state title match after finishing fourth in 2007 and 2012, came back to within 10-8, a Rachael Fara kill gave the serve back to Benet and the Redwings rolled from there. They won the first game on a thundering kill from sophomore Veronica Snelling, who also had 8 kills and hit .538 in the match.

“I'm always trying to look for open shots, and our defense gave me so many opportunities tonight,” said Snelling, second on the team in kills this season.

“This is an indescribable feeling. It's the best feeling I've ever had. We weren't going to let each other down with a loss tonight.”

As dominant as the Redwings were in Game 1, they were even moreso in the second game. Libertyville errors and 4 kills by junior Tiffany Clark put Benet ahead 14-3, a lead the Redwings stretched to 24-9 before a Francesca Fusco kill staved off one match point. But then Griffin's slam off a Libertyville player out of bounds ended the match and started the Redwings' celebration.

“We knew what we wanted to do and we were prepared, we just had a hard time stopping them,” said Wildcats coach Greg Loika. “That's a difficult task. The execution was not there for us, and a lot of our passes were out of our system, but that's a credit to (Benet). They kept the momentum on their side and they wanted it real bad.”

Benet coach Brad Baker pointed to his team's defense as the key. The Redwings held opponents to negative hitting percentages in three of the four games they played this weekend.

“When you hit .370 and hold teams to negative you get 25-10,” he said. “We hang our hats on playing defense and we did that tonight. We had a good game plan, but then it's up to the kids to follow it. We strive for an 'A' on every play, and I only counted two plays tonight when we weren't where we were supposed to be.

“We know what it feels like to lose this match and we didn't want that feeling again. It's a lot more fun to get first.”

Senior libero Natalie Canulli led the Benet defense with 16 digs. Senior Marissa Tassone added 5 kills and sophomore setter Sara Nielsen had 23 assists.

Fusco led the Wildcats with 4 kills. Sinead Prentiss and Mikaella Faber each had 4 digs. Benet's block limited Libertyville senior Alex Basler to just 1 kill.

“You gotta give them credit,” Basler said of the Redwings. “They're an amazing team and we knew that. We didn't execute what we wanted to, but in the end you have to give them credit for that. They're an amazing team. They've got great hitters, and we were looking to get a good block up, but they were able to get around us, and they put a huge block up on us.

“But a lot of teams underestimated us this year and they made a mistake doing that. I feel like we've started a new tradition at Libertyville. We've got a lot of good young players, and I think Libertyville has a bright future.”

Images: Class 4A Volleyball Finals

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