Redwings suffer first loss of season

It was about 20 minutes of volleyball Benet would just as soon forget.

That won't be easy.

Joliet Catholic rolled off 15 straight points at the end of Game 2 and beginning of Game 3, and Benet couldn't recover in a 25-23, 23-25, 25-20 loss in the semifinals of the 17th annual Autumnfest tournament at Glenbard East. The defeat was the first for Benet, ranked No. 1 in Illinois and No. 3 nationally, according to PrepVolleyball.com. The Redwings (32-1) did come back to beat Naperville Central 25-22, 25-21 in the third-place match.

"Everything that could go wrong did," Benet coach Brad Baker said. "Hitting, serving, passing. When they all go at the same time you end up with a 9-0 hole."

Benet, which beat Joliet Catholic in two games earlier this season, appeared in control in a tough match, up a game and 23-19 in the second after a Jessica Jendryk kill. Two Annemarie Hickey kills started a Joliet Catholic rally that ended with a Benet hitting error on game point. The Angels surged to a 9-0 lead in Game 3, Hickey kills accounting for 3 of the points. Benet never did pull closer than 2.

"We won 31 in a row. There's a lot of teams in the state that have never done that and it's a great accomplishment," Baker said. "It's obviously a bigger deal when we lose right now, but it's still one loss. We're still the only team in the state that has just one loss."

Joliet Catholic (30-3), which also won the Mizuno Cup last weekend, lost to Mother McAuley 27-25, 17-25, 27-25 in the championship.

"We were really, really hyped for this match. For us to beat that team (Benet) was a goal of ours this year," said Hickey, who had 14 kills and 19 digs. "Our block coverage was great, we kind of shut down their outsides that game."

Benet trailed 17-9 in Game 1 of the third-place match and never did lead by more than 2 in Game 2 until match point, but pulled through to beat Naperville Central for the second time this season. Jendryk had 9 kills, Ariana Mankus 8 kills, Natalie Patzin 5 kills and 7 digs, Paige Vargas 8 digs and Brianne Hucek 27 assists for the Redwings.

"We just needed to refocus," Jendryk said. "If we had to take a loss, we'll take it now and continue on our road. We learned from that loss. It's only going to make us stronger."

Naperville Central (27-5), already without injured outside Meghan Bray, went down two starters Friday night. Setter Kelsey Hoey took an inadvertant elbow to the face from a teammate. Nothing was broken, but with no vision in one eye Hoey was on the bench Saturday and will stay there for a few days until the swelling goes down.

The Redhawks still beat Lemont 25-20, 25-13 in the first match Saturday before falling to Mother McAuley 25-12, 25-22 in the semifinals. Emily McGee had 10 kills and 8 digs, Mary Carroll 6 kills and 5 digs, Jill Fields 12 digs and setter Emily Turkowski 18 assists and 6 aces against Benet.

"We're in a tough spot," Naperville Central coach Brie Isaacson said. "For us to come out and just battle that's all we can get. We don't come here to lose, and we don't feel proud that we just lost two matches. But for us to continue to play as hard as we did, we're a better team for playing it and we'll be a better team in the postseason."

Glenbard East beat Willowbrook 25-16, 27-25 for 11th place, Waubonsie Valley beat Loyola 25-22, 15-25, 25-17 for 13th and Glenbard East beat Providence 25-19, 25-18. Wheaton Warrenville South lost to Crystal Lake South 25-12, 25-15 in the ninth-place match.