Naperville Central wins cross-town match in 3 games

It had all the makings of another down-to-the-wire, close Naperville Central-Naperville North volleyball match.

The Redhawks had other ideas.

Chloe Lupina had 5 kills and an ace in a rout of a third game, and host Naperville Central won Thursday's crosstown match 25-16, 21-25, 25-10.

Naperville Central (5-5, 3-1 DuPage Valley Conference) scored the first 4 points of Game 3, 3 on Lupina kills, ran out to a 10-1 lead and never looked back.

"We had momentum going into the third game," Lupina said, "and I think it really helped us. We just really wanted it. We put it all on the floor and it showed."

Indeed, Naperville Central nearly finished the match in two games. Down 18-11 in Game 2 the Redhawks closed within 22-21 on a Nikki Connors kill.

But a Corinne Gajcak kill and block for Naperville North, and a Naperville Central hitting error, forced Game 3.

A Sammy Condon kill and block made it 7-1 in the third game, forcing Naperville North to burn a timeout. Condon followed the break in the action with another block, and fellow sophomore Alysia Baznik put down one of her 10 kills.

"I thought we had good momentum going into the third game," Naperville Central coach Brie Isaacson said, "but I've been on the other side of that game where it just falls apart. I told my team to score as many points as they can while (Naperville North) can't figure it out, because they will - because they're good. They just had a hard time finding any consistency."

Kills by Baznik and Katie Battle made it 12-2, forcing Naperville North to use up the last of its timeouts.

"Their energy just killed us," said Gajcak, who had a match-high 13 kills, "and we weren't at the right spots on defense. It was our serve receive that killed us. There wasn't the want to go for the ball, the drive."

Ashley Crawford added 10 kills for Naperville North (6-4, 3-1).

Battle had 9 kills and 3 blocks and Condon 4 kills and 6 blocks. If it seemed like Naperville Central's hitters repeatedly found open spots on the other side, there's good reason.

"They play the same defense as we do," Isaacson said, "so the openings are the same on our side as there is on theirs. That helped us. That's what we practice against."

Naperville Central's win was its third straight, all in three games and all in conference. Nice baby steps forward for a team that played four sophomores and a freshman Thursday.

"We're definitely growing," said Lupina, a senior. "Each match that we play I think we get a little bit better. There was definitely some nervous energy before this one because we have a lot of young girls on this team. But I think we used that to our advantage."