Neuqua Valley falls in tourney championship
Britta Baarstad admitted a sense of deja vu walking into the Waubonsie Valley gymnasium this week.
She left with an entirely different feeling.
Baarstad and Downers Grove North beat Neuqua Valley 20-25, 25-17, 25-17 on Saturday to win the Warrior Blast volleyball tournament.
It was at Waubonsie Valley that Downers Grove North bowed out of regionals last fall, ending a tough 14-22 season. These Trojans (13-4) bear little resemblance.
"We all know that we're sort of a wild card - nobody really thinks of us as a really good team, so we're surprising everybody," Baarstad said. "Everybody has really matured. A lot of us didn't want a repeat of last year. We said that from the first practice."
Downers Grove North led Game 1 of the championship 18-11 after a Sam Marek ace, the Trojans' fifth of the game. Neuqua Valley (14-4) came back to tie it at 18-18 on a Sam Skryd ace and finished off the comeback with a Megan Tompkins ace.
The Trojans didn't fold, though. Baarstad, shut out of Game 1, put down 4 kills and 2 aces in the second game. She finished the match with 7 kills. Sophomore Taylor Kasal had 8.
"At times I think Britta feels the weight of the team, she tries to do too much," Downers Grove North coach Mark Wasik said of his senior outside, "and then she figures it out. Once everybody else gets on board she can be herself. She's dominating when she's just out there playing and not overthinking."
The Trojans rebounded from losses to top-notch programs Sandburg and Hinsdale Central over the last 10 days. In both of those matches they let early leads slip away.
"We've been in these situations where we had big leads," Wasik said, "and we lost and emotionally were just spent. Mentally they're just so much stronger in two weeks' time."
Neuqua Valley survived a semifinal match with Waubonsie Valley for a 27-25, 25-17 win. The Wildcats weathered two Waubonsie Valley game points to take Game 1, then rallied from an early 4-0 hole in the second game to beat Waubonsie for the second time this season.
"Downers Grove North just really played a solid match - they deserved to win," Neuqua coach Kelly Simon said. "They played great defense, they put up a solid block and made minimal errors."
Waubonsie looked much sharper than in its first match with Neuqua two weeks ago. Nicole Salmon had 8 kills and Martha Stewart 6 for the Warriors (13-6), who lost to St. Ignatius 25-17, 25-23. A busy schedule continues Tuesday at defending Class 4A state champion St. Charles East.
"We didn't win today," Warriors coach Kristen Stuart said, "but I felt like progress was made. The middles are starting to get more kills and different people are stepping up."
York (13-7) beat Plainfield Central 25-14, 25-23 for fifth.
Rosary (12-11), last year's tournament champion, beat Bolingbrook 27-25, 25-18 for seventh after losing to Downers Grove North in a tough two-game match on Friday and dropping a 25-16, 22-25, 25-21 decision to York Saturday morning.
"I'm a little disappointed with how we finished," Rosary coach Lisa Kasper said, "but seventh place is OK with the roller-coaster ride we've been on this season. Right now we're beating the teams that are weaker than us, but not the ones of the same caliber."
Batavia beat Yorkville 22-25, 25-16, 25-15 for 11th place. Caitlin Piechota, named All-Tournament, had 27 kills over five matches, Kelsey VandenBorn had 12 blocks and Stephanie Kinane 43 digs for the Bulldogs (9-8), who host Geneva on Tuesday.
"Going 2-3 is good for us," Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne said. "We go to this tournament for the strength of the competition."