WW South regains aggressiveness to beat Redhawks

The Wheaton Warrenville South girls volleyball team regained its sense of urgency. In turn it regained its winning edge.

The Tigers started strongly and wound up finishing the same way in defeating host Naperville Central 25-20, 14-25, 25-19 in a marquee DuPage Valley Conference opener Tuesday night.

"We knew that we just had to be aggressive again in Game 3," WW South coach Bill Schreier said. "I thought that was one of the things that was lacking (in Game 2). I thought that we were a little bit hesitant and looked almost a step slow. You can't do that, not against a team of that caliber on the road."

WW South (6-0, 1-0) got rolling in the first game with an early 5-point run and had its way in building a 23-14 lead before a late run by the home team made the score respectable.

But Naperville Central (1-1, 0-1) rebounded resoundingly in Game 2. The Redhawks stormed ahead 10-1 en route to forcing a third game.

In Game 3 the teams battled their way to a tie at 15. From there WW South did not commit an error, scoring 10 of the final 14 points to win.

"We just played aggressive and that's I thought what really made a difference," said WW South senior outside hitter Becca Zlabis, who recorded 6 of her match-high 13 kills in the decisive game.

"I think we realized that we had to play with a little more of a sense of urgency," said Tigers senior setter Annie Luhrsen, who took a set from Zlabis and rolled a kill for match point.

Luhrsen finished with 5 kills and 27 assists. Teammate Mollie Kolosky contributed 9 kills and 2 blocks out of the middle.

Naperville Central coach Brie Isaacson was pleased with her team's effort in just its second match of the season.

"Being completely honest, I'm walking away proud of that match," Isaacson said. "I think we showed what we can do. … My big focus this year is playing hard at all times, giving ourselves the best chance to win, putting ourselves in position to be successful.

"I thought minus the first 15 points of Game 1 we did all those things. We just made some big mistakes at the wrong time, but the only way we're going to get those out of our system is by playing."

Naperville Central received 10 kills from junior right-side hitter Megan Bray and 9 by junior outside hitter Emily McGee.