Psyched-up Naperville N. takes command in DVC

Just because Kaia Schwartz only remembered one West Chicago player from club volleyball didn't mean she wasn't prepared for Tuesday night.

"West Chicago isn't typically a team near the top of the conference," said the Naperville North senior middle, "but we still got ourselves psyched up for this match. We knew it would be a tough one."

In a matchup for the DuPage Valley Conference lead at its midway point, Schwartz and the rest of the Huskies dispatched of up-and-coming West Chicago 25-16, 25-21 in Naperville.

Naperville North (14-4, 6-1) never trailed again after tying Game 1 10-10. The Huskies smartly set up their hitters throughout and served to strategic spots on the floor to keep West Chicago from getting its big guns going.

"It was a really good win for us," Huskies coach Jennifer Urban said. "I thought we played fairly consistent. Catie Cremin served a really nice ball, a nice float serve, which caused them to overpass a lot."

Seven ties into the first game, Naperville North took the lead for good on a West Chicago serving error. Two more Wildcats errors, a Cremin ace and Audrey Wilson kill pushed the Huskies advantage to 18-13. Two more West Chicago errors - the Wildcats (13-5, 5-2) had 12 in Game 1 - clinched the game.

"We just didn't get the ball to our hitters," West Chicago coach Kris Hasty said, "and that's crucial for our team. That's something we really have to work on, is being more consistent getting our hitters involved."

Schwartz had 10 kills with 0 errors and Wilson 9. The ninth Schwartz kill gave the Huskies a commanding 20-13 second-game lead.

"Kaia came up big for us in the middle," Urban said. "Any time a middle can hit that well you know we're doing good things."

Trailing 21-13, West Chicago made a late surge. Sophomore outside Julia Conard - shut out of the stat line in Game 1 - knocked down 3 straight kills to make it 21-16. An Emily Paschke kill on an overpass and a Paschke redirect got it to 21-18 before a Wilson kill and ace quelled the tide.

Kathy Fletcher had 6 kills, Paschke and Conard 5 for West Chicago.

West Chicago's loss was its second straight following a 12-game winning streak. Hasty left the gym with a better taste than last Thursday's loss to Naperville Central.

"We had some great rallies, we won some great rallies - we just have to be more consistent," Hasty said. "Coming off the Naperville Central match where we didn't even show up to tonight, we did a much better job."