Learning opportunity for Benet in own tourney
Benet outside hitter Lara Ontko is confident the Redwings will be all right if they can just perform in matches the way they practice.
On Saturday, Redwings, who are expected to challenge for the state title, suffered their second defeat of the season, this one coming in the semifinals of the Benet Invitational, a 25-23, 25-20 loss to Hinsdale Central.
The Redwings (4-2) defeated Hinsdale Central (3-3) in last year's Lockport Sectional sinal for the right to advance to the Elite Eight at state.
"We had great practices this week," Ontko said. "And, Friday, we won all three of our pool matches easily. But we just couldn't put it all together. I don't know why we're making so many errors. It hurts to lose. But it's better we're learning now. We have to get the early season cobwebs out and fix the problems."
In Game 1, the Red Devils took the lead for good at 8-7 on a Benet hitting error and then opened up a 19-10 margin.
The Redwings kept cutting into the lead and finally got to within 1 point at 24-23 before the Red Devils' Katarina Milojevic put down a kill deep on Benet's side to end the game.
In the second game, the Red Devils got some separation after the score was tied at 15-15 and kept it to the end.
"We just showed inconsistency throughout he match," said Benet coach Brad Baker. "We had stretches in both games where we were very good as we were all day yesterday. But we made far too many errors. Their ball control was much better than ours."
Baker said his team's goal is to be the best at the end of the season, so he's confident that the Redwings can work on their current problems and show steady improvement.
"We need to give our hitters a better opportunity to hit the ball," Baker said. "We have to clean up our serve-receive and pass a lot better."
In the third-place match, Benet defeated Waubonsie Valley 25-11, 21-25, 25-16.
Ontko, who led the Redwings with 8 kills against Hinsdale Central, and her teammate setter Kaitlyn King were named to the all-tournament team along with Ally Simmons and Martha Stewart of Waubonsie Valley.
Hinsdale Central lost two of its three games in Friday pool play but moved into the Gold Division based on a formula of tiebreakers.
"Last night we had a lot of breakdowns in different areas, so we couldn't get a good rhythm," said Hinsdale Central coach Sheralynn Kellough. "Against Benet we got into the rhythm from the get-go and kept it. And that's what made the difference."
After topping Benet, Hinsdale Central moved on to the finals, where it was defeated by York, 23-25, 25-20, 29-27. The champion Dukes went 5-0 in the tournament.
The Red Devils' Ally Davis, Natalia Skiba and Jamie Netisingha were chosen for the all-tournament team, as were York outside hitter Caroline Rose, the tournament's MVP, her teammates Emily Iverson and Katie Gallagher, as well as West Aurora's Lauren Carlini and Vicki Wrobel of Lemont.