Carmel can't contend with Benet's wake-up call

Maybe Benet's girls volleyball team just needed that first cup of coffee.

On Thursday, the Redwings answered their wake-up call all grouchy and then took it out on visiting Carmel in cruising to a 25-16, 25-8 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory.

The Corsairs' Ashley August put pressure on Benet at the beginning, as she delivered three straight service aces to start Game 1.

That got the Redwings' attention and they responded by catching and passing the Corsairs (13-10, 2-5) for the first-game victory before dominating the second game.

Benet tied Game 1 at 4-4 on an ace by Natalie Patzin and then at 5-5 on a Jessica Jendryk kill.

Ariana Mankus' kill deep in the Carmel back-court, put the Redwings ahead for good at 6-5.

"We may have taken them lightly at first," said Patzin. "But, they gave us a wake-up call. They knocked us off our feet, but we got right back up. Everyone on this team is so competitive. We all just go out there to win."

"They got a little ticked that we were putting pressure on their passers right away," said Carmel coach Bill Szczesniak. "Then they took their game up to another level. They brought it to us, and we couldn't do anything about it."

With a balanced attack that featured a game-high 7 kills by Jendryk, 6 by Patzin and 5 by Mankus, the Redwings (18-2, 6-2) dominated every phase of the match, and seemed to break down the Corsairs spirit in the process.

"We were getting frustrated and we couldn't run our offense at all," Szczesniak said. "Our communication was breaking down. Our trust in each other was breaking down. Benet totally got us out of our game, mentally."

The Corsairs managed only 8 kills in the two-game match.

"We've been playing well," said Benet coach Brad Baker. "We've been in control of every one of our wins. Tonight, we had good energy which is encouraging because we've been talking about how important it is to make a late-season push."