Girls volleyball: Naperville Central finishes strong vs. Neuqua Valley

In the sport of volleyball, with momentum being such a big deal, dropping a second set and heading to a winner-take-all third set can lead to trouble.

But sometimes it does not, as Naperville Central proved Tuesday night in a 25-21, 20-25, 25-11 DuPage Valley Conference defeat of visiting Neuqua Valley. The Redhawks were a little off in the middle set before playing superb volleyball, winning 18 of the match's final 23 points to easily take the decisive set.

"We were in a rough place going into the third set because we had just lost, but we knew we needed to win this," said Naperville Central senior outside hitter Sarah Schank, who delivered 5 of her team-high 11 kills early in the final set as the hosts took charge. "We were so hyped for this game in general, and we really wanted to bring it in the third set and we really wanted it."

The Wildcats, who dropped to 9-6 on the year and 0-2 with a pair of three-set losses in the DVC, were without team leader Maria Mayhew, who broke her hand in practice last week and was wearing a cast.

Even so, they gutted out the second set with strong defense and just enough offense, before Naperville Central (12-5, 2-0) picked up the pace in the third set with great serving, blocking and attacks on the outside.

"Central just completely executed their third game," Neuqua Valley coach Kelly Simon said. "They blocked really well, they served really tough and Sarah I think got five kills in the first 15 points. We know that they feed the ball to her, but we just couldn't stop her."

Everything went the Redhawks' way in the final set, including big blocks from 6-footers Grace Wichhart and Johana Havenaar and strong serving and passing from senior setter Janelle Skinner.

"We believe in ourselves, and we know we got it. We're all confident," said Skinner, who finished with 17 assists and 3 aces. "We're excited. It was our second home game and we had a lot of rowdies out. It was a lot of fun with a big crowd."

The Redhawks have plenty of senior leadership this year but also count heavily on junior libero Alexandra Vanwestrienen and sophomore outside Kayla Closset, who had 7 kills and 7 digs against Neuqua.

"This was a big moment for us to be able to come back and respond after our not-best second set," Redhawks coach Brie Isaacson said. "Give Neuqua credit. I thought they played hard and they were touching a lot of balls in the second set and it was hard for us to get in any type of rhythm. They were scrappy and so we kind of got away from what we do. But then we responded in the third set."

Seniors Rachel Pu and Shannon Skyrd led a balanced Wildcats attack with 5 kills apiece, and sophomore libero Bailey Houlihan led the defense with 10 digs.