Benet falls back to Earth
Strategy is useless without sound execution.
Benet found out the hard way Tuesday night.
Three days after their championship at the Wheaton Classic, the Redwings lost to East Suburban Catholic rival Joliet Catholic 25-20, 25-20 in Joliet.
To combat Joliet Catholic outsides Annemarie Hickey (committed to Wisconsin) and Alyssa Warren (Seton Hall), Benet elected to "short serve." The knuckleball serves were designed to fall in front of Joliet Catholic's back row and eliminate one of those hitters.
It didn't work. Hickey had 11 kills and Warren 8. Benet was behind the eight-ball in Game 1, down 13-4 at one point after a Hickey kill, and never recovered.
"We were trying to serve the ball short," Benet coach Brad Baker said, "and our servers were not being aggressive enough. The ball was floating too deep. In the first game we were serving the ball deep and our servers were just lollipopping it over. We wanted to take out one of their hitters so we would know where they were going with it.
"We were just not being aggressive enough. You want to be aggressive, but you do not want to be reckless."
Count Hickey as one not expecting the Benet short serves.
"I was actually really surprised that they were doing that," Hickey said. "We were reading them really good. Even when we would move up from the back row, they kept serving like that."
Benet (14-2, 1-1) got as close as 22-18 in the first game on consecutive Sierra Young kills, but Joliet Catholic (19-0, 2-0) closed it out with a redirect by server Kelly Murphy, a Murphy ace and a back-row Hickey smash into the teeth of the Benet side.
Game 2 was nip-and-tuck early, a Meghan Byrne kill giving Benet an 11-10 advantage. But two Hickey kills sandwiched around a Redwings hitting error gave the host Angels the lead for good.
"I thought JCA played outstanding," Baker said. "We hit balls tonight that go down against maybe every other team in the state."
Benet entered Tuesday's match tournament-tested, with a first-place finish at the Wheaton Classic and runner-up to Hinsdale Central at Willowbrook. For Joliet Catholic, the defending Class 3A champion, Benet served as its first true test.
"We knew coming in that they were probably a little more tested than we were from the tournament they played in over the weekend," Angels coach Chris Scheibe said. "We were looking forward to this match, to see where we stand. All our big tournaments are late in the season."
Hickey had 10 digs to go with her 11 kills.
"You can see why she's being recruited as a defensive specialist in college," Scheibe said.
Benet libero and Kansas commit Brianne Riley was all over the place in the back row and finished with 15 digs. Gina Finke had 4 kills and 8 digs and Young 5 kills for Benet.
Last year Benet beat Joliet Catholic in conference before the Angels handed the Redwings their first loss at Glenbard East's Autumnfest. The two teams could meet again at Glenbard East.
"Our defense I thought was good, too," Baker said, "it just wasn't good enough. Defensively, I thought we were even. But as far as the serve and serve-receive game, they won that battle. There's no question."