Girls volleyball: Naperville North claims tournament title
Naperville North junior and third-year starter Sarah Kushner again received all-tournament honors following Wheaton North's 35th annual Classic Blue and Gold Tournament Saturday.
This time the outside hitter and the Huskies left with an even bigger prize.
Naperville North won the 12-team tournament for the first time by beating Montini 25-22, 25-14 in the final.
“It's awesome because we have so many seniors who have gone through the entire program,” Kushner said. “No one on our team has won a tournament really on the varsity level. It's just so amazing to finally get that, and with a team that has so much chemistry, too.”
The Huskies (5-0), who joined the field in 2014, were fifth last year but graduated only their libero from the starting lineup. Seven of their nine seniors are part of the regular rotation.
Senior outside hitter Ari Budnik, beginning her fourth varsity season, also was all-tournament. Montini's all-tournament representatives were senior outside hitter Michelle Glover and junior outside hitter Lexi Quaglia.
“Freshman year, I didn't really have that big of a role. Being a senior, I feel like now it's our turn. We all have to step up and contribute,” Budnik said. “I just feel like this was a really good win for us. We're going to keep going but this is a good starting point. We want to keep going further and further.”
The Broncos (4-2) also graduated just one starter but still have a predominantly junior lineup.
“It's a big turnaround. We've come a long way in the last season in terms of talent wise and teamwork-wise,” Montini coach Steve Dowjotas said. “(Naperville North is) solid all the way around. They've got some great offense, a good setter (junior Grace Selman), their defense was solid.”
Including Wednesday's pool play, the Huskies won all five tourney matches in two games. For the tournament, Budnik had 29 kills and 27 digs and Kushner 28 kills and 24 digs, Selman 55 assists and 28 digs and new senior libero Caroline Surges 46 digs.
In the final Budnik had 8 kills, Kushner 8 digs, junior Kayla Griesbach 5 kills and Selman 12 assists and 7 digs.
“We've been young the last two years so it's really helped, especially in an early tournament, to have a lot of experienced girls. The girls feel comfortable playing next to each other,” Naperville North coach Jennifer Urban said. “We have a lot of weapons in the front row. It's a matter of just trying to be consistent with our ball control.”
Glover had 5 kills and 4 blocks in the final. Quaglia had 4 kills, junior Joslyn Boyer had 14 assists and Boyer, senior Annie Olszowka and junior Maddie Pickering each had 6 digs.
“The fact that we hung with them as well as we did and even scored great points off of them means that we're going to go far (this season),” Glover said.
Wheaton North (4-2) continued its streak of third-place finishes by beating St. Viator 25-23, 21-25, 25-15. Wheaton North senior middle blocker Ani Clark and senior outside hitter McKenna Otto were all-tournament.
In the semifinals Naperville North beat the Falcons 25-23, 25-19 and Montini rallied to beat St. Viator 17-25, 25-20, 25-17.
“We didn't let ourselves get down on each other (that match),” Quaglia said. “I was super nervous my first two years (on varsity), but this year definitely I feel a lot more confident.”
In a rematch of the 2016 final, Glenbard West (4-2) took fifth place with a 25-18, 14-25, 25-21 victory over Kaneland (3-3).
Glenbard West senior outside hitter Hannah Brodner, last season's starting setter, and Kaneland junior outside hitter Katie Jablonski were all-tournament for the second straight season. Also all-tournament was junior middle blocker Maggie Bair from eighth-place Glenbard South (1-4).