Benet dealt reminder of 2014 title run
After what went down last year, Benet knows very well that falling to Mother McAuley in the championship of the Autumnfest tournament is not the end of the world.
That said, the Redwings know they will have to play a lot better than they did in Saturday's 28-26, 25-11 loss at the 24-team tourney if they expect to defend their Class 4A championship. Minus injured outside hitters Veronica Snelling and Gretchen Rudel, Benet won its pool play at the Glenbard East event and later swept Providence in the semifinals.
Mother McAuley, which won the Autumnfest title last year while handing Benet its lone loss, edged Glenbard West 25-23, 25-20 in Saturday's other semifinal and then played near flawless volleyball in knocking off the Redwings.
"We just didn't make adjustments on the fly. We were not making the adjustments we needed to do," Benet coach Brad Baker said. "And then they played absolutely fantastic. They played outstanding."
In 2014 the Mighty Macs also played a great match in beating the Redwings in the Autumnfest championship, but Benet got the ultimate revenge with a memorable 27-25, 37-35 supersectional victory on its way to the state title.
Redwings setter Sara Nielsen is hoping again that this result pushes the team toward another deep playoff run.
"We want to use this as motivation," said Nielsen, who had 17 assists in the final. "Last year that's what we did. We need to come back to the gym and work really hard in practice."
One thing Benet will want to work on is avoiding a number of big blocks, but fortunately not every team they'll face will have a middle like Mother McAuley's 6-foot Kayla Caffey, who had 11 kills and 5 blocks on her way to claiming MVP honors at Glenbard East.
"They obviously played very well and we weren't as disciplined as we should have been," Nielsen said. "There are a lot of things that we would do differently in the second set if we could go back, but I don't want to take anything away from them. Definitely they've got some really athletic girls. They can jump really high. We've got to figure out some different shots and I need to figure out better ways to get us some 1-on-1 (attacks)."
The first game was up for grabs throughout, and the Redwings even led 23-22 after a kill by Claire Byrne, who was called up from the sophomore team to boost the short-handed Redwings (31-2). Benet also led 24-23 following one of Tiffany Clark's 6 kills, and stayed alive at 25-25 after a big block by Lauren Berta. But the Mighty Macs (26-7) pulled out the opener on kills from Abby O'Brien and Caffey.
After Benet took a brief 2-0 lead in the second set, Mother McAuley went on a 20-6 run on its way to completing the sweep.
Glenbard West rebounded from its tight loss to the Macs with a 25-13, 25-23 defeat of Providence to finish third. Outside hitter Natalie Schilling was named all-tourney, along with Nielsen and Clark for Benet. Waubonsie Valley finished fifth at the Autumnfest and Brooke Burling picked up all-tourney honors.