Girls volleyball: Confidence bounce-back as Naperville North tops Glenbard East

The schedule makers gave the Naperville North volleyball team a chance for quick redemption, and the Huskies took the opportunity and ran with it.

Just 24 hours after a tough loss to Metea Valley, the Huskies bounced back with a solid effort in a 25-17, 25-18 defeat of visiting Glenbard East. The Rams (10-10) came to town a little banged up in the health department, but that had nothing to do with how well the Huskies played as a team.

"I thought we were in control the whole match, which as a coach is a good feeling," Naperville North coach Jen Urban said after the nonconference sweep improved her team to 15-2 on the year. "Whenever you don't have to call a timeout that means you've got momentum on your side and you're siding out pretty efficiently."

The first set was tied at 13-13, but senior Ariana Budnik and junior team captain Sarah Kushner saw to it that the Huskies would not drop a second straight match. The two outsides combined for 12 kills in the match and helped lead a 12-4 charge to close out the first set.

"I think what we changed from last night was our mentality," said Kushner, "and the belief in our team that we are good enough to beat any team. I don't think anyone was really looking at the score. I didn't know the score half the time. We were just focused on trusting each other playing with our team and continually working our hardest to earn one single point and then moving on to the next."

The second set started tight as well, as the Rams trailed just 10-9 following a kill by Sarah Elliott and again by a single point at 16-15, before the veteran Huskies finished off the victory.

"I just think from yesterday we knew we had to come out stronger," said Budnik, who recorded a match-high 7 kills. "We had to put it like out of our minds and just focus on the next game. Coming out today we knew we had to work together as a good team."

Naperville North was sharp in all facets of the game, with the hitters on, the passing solid and Shanley Hrubesky and Sarah Wastek putting up a big block.

"We really put all that doubt out of our minds," Budnik said. "We really looked at each other and said, 'We can do this.'

"We all played as hard as we could."

For Glenbard East, Elliott had 4 kills and a pair of aces while Ellen Kirsh and Emily Denton played well on defense.

"I thought we started off well, but we're a little banged up now," Rams coach Marci Maier said. "They played great. We're just a little short-handed right now and they played awesome.

"We're trying to put the pieces back together."