Naperville Central makes it two straight against Naperville North

Power shots. Tip shots. Soft roll shots into the middle of the court. Right-handed. Left-handed. Short punches.

Naperville Central 5-foot-8 junior outside hitter Sarah Schank unleashed her entire arsenal Thursday against visiting Naperville North.

"Front row, back row, she got some nice tips and really she was going with a lot of off-speed stuff," Naperville Central coach Jeff Danborn said. "I think that's a key for her against teams with big blockers. You got throw some off-speed in there just to keep them honest. She was really switching up her hits tonight."

Schank's versatility paid off handsomely in the battle between DuPage Valley Conference rivals. Her 21 kills powered the Redhawks to a 23-25, 25-22, 25-16 victory over the Huskies, their second win over Naperville North in less than a week.

"We already played North twice this year and we beat them once (Saturday at the Mizuno Invitational) and we just wanted to come out and try to beat them on our home court," Schank said. "It was just a great feeling with all the fans. I think everyone contributed a lot to our team today."

But nobody contributed more than Schank, who had 8 kills in the pivotal third set, including one that ended the longest rally of the match with Naperville Central clinging to a 16-11 lead.

"I think it's a game-changer when there's a long rally and everyone's working so hard and you finally get that last kill," Schank said. "It just changes the mood of the whole team."

"That was a great defensive rally on both sides of net," Naperville North coach Jennifer Urban said. "Coming into the timeout (after the rally), we told the girls that if we play that kind of defense and have that kind of pursuit for the rest of the match, we would be happy with the result no matter what.

"We've played Central three times this season and they've all been three-set matches," the Huskies coach added. "So I think that shows that we're pretty evenly matched teams. It's a matter of who's making fewer errors at the end of the night."

Sophomore outside hitter Sarah Kushner led Naperville North (17-11, 2-4) with 9 kills, Ariana Budnik threw down 7 kills, junior setter Mackenzie Schulte added 15 assists and 10 digs, and libero Rachel Shuty had 18 digs.

Junior setter Janelle Skinner distributed 31 assists, junior opposite Johanna Havenaar added 6 kills, 2 blocks and 2 aces, and 6-2 junior mjddle Hannah O'Connor chipped in 5 kills and 2 blocks for Naperville Central (14-14, 4-2).

"I think this team is trying to grow with their confidence and trying to trust each other down the stretch," Danborn said, "We had to change some our offensive system, and once we did that the girls started to jell more and get a little bit more consistency.

"We're still trying things," he added. "We're trying to back-row attack more. We have to remind them of that every once in a while. You get caught up in the moment and you forget about it a little bit. But tonight was a nice comeback."