Quincy overcomes Benet

NORMAL - Score one for the quality of downstate girls volleyball.

Quincy denied Benet a return to Redbird Arena with a 25-23, 26-24 win on Saturday at the Class 4A Normal Community supersectional, punching its ticket to state for the first time in 10 years, second in school history.

For the first time since 1978, DuPage County will not send a school to the state girls volleyball tournament.

"We had one film on them and we pride ourselves on being overly prepared," Benet coach Brad Baker said, "but I don't know how much film would have helped us tonight. I don't know how good they played the rest of the season, but they played as good as any team in the northwest suburbs that we would have seen tonight."

Quincy (37-3) actually was ranked No. 80 nationally in the latest PrepVolleyball.com poll released this week. Benet (35-5), ranked earlier this year, isn't ranked now.

That didn't stop the Blue Devils from following the David vs. Goliath script.

"They're a big-city team from Chicago and we're from a little town," said Quincy senior setter Hannah Kvitle, committed to St. Louis, "and everyone was telling us how good they are. We just played our game."

In a tight match featuring 21 ties and 10 lead changes, Benet's biggest advantage was at 13-8 in the second set. That followed the Redwings' longest point run of 5 capped by a Meghan Haggerty block. But 3 Benet errors and a Quincy ace allowed the Blue Devils to remain within striking distance.

"They were just able to side out more than we were," Baker said. "All their kids were hitting good shots."

Benet led the first set 21-20 following a Gina Finke kill, but a Redwings lift and a kill by Quincy's Taylor Holtmeyer - ruled off a Benet player's fingertips despite protests otherwise - put Quincy ahead for good in the set at 22-21.

"Our team fought back the best we could," Benet senior Brianne Riley said, "but they just had a couple more shots than us at the end of the game when it mattered."

A Sierra Young tip kill put Benet at set point in the second up 24-23, but Quincy right-side Kaitlyn Hankins answered with 3 straight kills to finish the match. The 6-foot-1 senior finished with 8 kills and a block.

"She was the difference in the match," Baker said. "I don't know what her kill percentage was, but it was way too high. We couldn't control her tonight."

Young had 10 kills, Haggerty 5 kills and 5 blocks, Finke 8 kills and 7 digs and Riley 12 digs for Benet, which fell short in its attempt to make state for the second straight year and second time in school history.

Winning a sectional and 35 matches with just two starters back from last year, though, makes it unfair to qualify Benet's season as anything less than a success.

"At the beginning of the season, we were kind of defined by last year's team," Finke said, "but throughout the season we were able to make a name for ourselves by ourselves. I was really proud of everyone for that."