Girls volleyball: Werner sets up Glenbard South for sweep of Wheaton Academy

With a balanced girls volleyball lineup of hitters, Glenbard South setter Claire Werner has plenty of options as to where to go with her sets.

Thursday night was no exception.

Werner spread the ball around the court while picking up 26 assists in the Raiders' 25-15, 25-18 defeat of visiting Wheaton Academy (5-16). Three different hitters had 6 kills apiece, including freshman outside hitter Kathleen Millett and senior opposite Bella Bauman.

But Glenbard South made sure look whenever possible to the middle, where 6-foot-1 sophomore Maggie Bair owned a big height advantage on the Warriors, who were without a pair of injured middle hitters. Bair had 6 kills in the match and also helped put up a strong block on Wheaton Academy.

"Claire's a very good setter," said Bair, who played on the outside as a freshman. "She knows where to get it. We've got a very good right side and we can also depend on Kathleen (Millett) and Mady (Carli) to go up and smash it. It's nice that we can all depend on one another up front."

The Raiders' firepower was just too much for the Warriors to handle. The hosts jumped out to a 14-3 lead following a kill by Bailee Flanagan and then a block by Werner before taking the first set by 10 points.

The Warriors, who were led Kayla Tyrrell's 4 kills, kept things much tighter in the second set and claimed a 10-9 lead following back-to-back winners by Tyrrell. Four straight points late pulled the Warriors to within 20-18 after a kill by Camryn McClure, but the Raiders (16-9, 7-1) stayed tied atop the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division standings by completing the sweep.

"We're finding a nice balance offensively," Glenbard South coach Chad Grant said. "We had a couple matches the last couple weeks where all five of our hitters were getting between 3 and 6 kills and that makes it tough to stop.

"Today we had a mismatch for sure with Maggie in the middle. That was a good spot for us to get the ball. We had a big height advantage there and we exploited that to the best of our ability when we were able to pass the ball. When we pass the ball well, we've got a setter who can get the ball where we need to get it. She'll find a matchup that we like and try and make it a 1-on-1 matchup."

Werner is having fun moving the ball around this season, even if this year's cast was supposed to be a little too green to play so well.

"I think that from the very beginning we just had a lot of players with a will to fight," the senior setter said. "We managed to make something out of it and so far we're doing well in conference and I'm expecting to maybe get real far (in the postseason)."

With injuries taking away a couple starters and much of the team's height. Warriors coach D.A. Nichols liked the fight he saw from a team that at times had five sophomores on the court.

"In our first set we started out passing a little rough and we didn't serve well. We weren't getting them out of system and it was like hitting practice for them," he said. "In the second set we just came out and took some more chances on the serve and it paid off a little bit. At least we were able to get some volleys back and forth and at least get some chances on offense. But tonight was fun to watch. We had five sophomores play and it was a good experience for them."