Redwings prove hard to predict

Here's a quick and easy scouting report of this edition of Benet volleyball:

Somebody in black is going to hit the ball.

OK, maybe not so simple.

"That's our strength this year, is our depth," Redwings coach Brad Baker said. "Other teams don't know where we're going with the ball."

If not household names yet in varsity volleyball, the Redwings showed their waves of attackers on Wednesday in a 25-19, 25-20 win over York in Lisle.

Sophomore middle Meghan Haggerty had 7 kills and 4 blocks, junior Lara Ontko 7 kills, senior Gina Finke 6 kills, and seniors Sierra Young and Meghan Byrne 4 each.

"Nobody believes that you have six hitters until they see it," Baker said.

Even Baker is still learning what works best for this new group.

"We have a general plan of where we're going with it," Baker said. "We are still finding out what works best for us. When you have so many hitters and so many setters, sometimes that takes time. We're still experimenting."

Benet (2-0) took control of both games midway through. York grabbed an early 9-4 lead in Game 1 behind 4 straight Caroline Rose kills. Benet tied it four times, the last 15-15 on a Haggerty kill, and kills by Byrne and Finke made it 17-15. A Finke kill following 2 Alyson Farm aces closed out the game.

"We have a bunch of great hitters," Finke said, "and I trust anybody at any time. That's a great thing to have."

York led 10-9 in Game 2, but Haggerty rose up for a block, crushed a free ball and put down a kill to give Benet the lead for good at 13-12.

"Their middle was better than ours," York coach Patty Iverson said. "Their middle attacked and we could not dig her. That's when they ran up their score in the second game, was when they ran their middle."

Rose had 6 kills, Lauren Zerante 5 and Morgan Semmelhack 3 for York (1-2), whose hitters didn't have their best night.

"We did some good things, but I would say that my two outsides had about 70 percent shots as opposed to hitting the ball," Iverson said. "They looked like the same sets, they got out there, they just kept taking shots instead of hitting the ball."

Benet knew it could play much better than it did Wednesday as well but will take a 2-0 record into this weekend's Willowbrook Invite.

"We're never satisfied with how we play," Finke said. "We're happy for the win, but we know what we need to work on and we need to improve on."