Redhawks in a rout

NORMAL -- Naperville Central has been in a lot of battles this season. This wasn't one of them.

The Redhawks flexed their muscles in powering past Libertyville 25-13, 25-14 in a girls volleyball Class 4A semifinal match late Friday night at Redbird Arena.

Naperville Central (37-4) showed why it just might have the best pair of outside hitters in the state. Senior Rebecca Heath blasted 18 kills and junior Emily McGee pounded 10 in leading their team to its 22nd victory in a row.

"It's definitely a tough combination because when one goes to the back row, the next one comes up," Redhawks coach Brie Isaacson said. "I do feel very lucky to have the strong outsides that I do."

Heath said she didn't seem invincible. It only seemed that way.

"They did get a lot of touches on me, but Megan (McMahon) was doing a great job of putting the ball where I needed it to be," said Heath, who made only 3 errors in hitting at a .536 efficiency. "I was just really excited to be out there."

The Redhawks will meet Mother McAuley (34-7), which earned a 25-23, 25-19 triumph over St. Charles East (28-13), for the Class 4A title at about 8:15 tonight.

Expect Naperville Central to have a harder time in the championship match than it did in its semifinal. The Redhawks took a 4-1 lead in the first game and stretched it to 14-7 and 18-8 before winning on a hitting error.

In Game 2 Naperville Central vaulted ahead 12-3 on an 8-point run behind the serving of Jill Fields and the hitting of Heath. It was 18-5 before long, and Heath eventually ended the match with a cannon-like kill off a Libertyville defensive player.

"You have to give Naperville Central a ton of credit," said Wildcats coach Chris Trzyna, whose club fell to 34-7. "They were a team that was extremely fast and quick, and they also had tremendous size for us to try to match up against. For us it was probably one of the fastest hitting teams we've seen all season."

Tonight Naperville Central will try to add to its 2005 Class AA championship. McAuley has won a state record 13 state titles.

"We haven't played them this season," Isaacson said of the Mighty Macs. "We got to see them at Autumnfest and have seen them on tape. I think they're really sound defensively, but we pride ourselves on that as well so I think it should be a really great defensive match.

"I think the championship match should be really good. I think offensively we're going to try to change up some thing, do some things different, but defensively hopefully we'll look exactly the same."