Haggerty's return to middle paying off for Benet
Looking back, Benet coach Brad Baker thought moving Meghan Haggerty to outside was an experiment worth trying.
"We're trying to have a pin player," Baker said in the season's first week, referring to his 6-foot-2 junior, "that nobody can gameplan for."
It just didn't go as planned. Haggerty appears much more comfortable in the middle. The lineup was shuffled on more than one occasion. Benet as a team clearly looked out of synch the first couple weeks, committing numerous errors in three early losses.
During the third game of a win over Downers Grove North Sept. 3, Baker moved Wisconsin recruit Haggerty back to middle. She now plays three rotations there, with senior Alyson Farm going back outside for six rotations.
It's hard to argue with the new formula. Including that Downers Grove North match Benet is 7-1 over its last eight, the lone loss to unbeaten Marist in a close, well-played semifinal of the Wheaton Classic.
"We've just gone to a more traditional lineup," Baker said. "At the beginning of the year we had people playing all kinds of new positions. We're playing better, playing more consistent volleyball. At the beginning of the season we were just making truckloads of errors."
Benet outside Lara Ontko is one gratified beneficiary of having Haggerty's presence in the middle.
"Teams used to have a double block on me all the time," Ontko said, "and now they have to block Haggs double or she's going to hit it straight down. There's a lot more openings. It allows me and Jenna (Jendryk) to get holes in the block because people have to stay with Haggs."
Benet has also switched from a 6-2 to a 5-1 with Kaitlyn King setting.
"It's just a little easier to be in a rhythm when you have one setter, as opposed to two," Baker said. "In every match we feel we've got better since the switch."
Wildcats hold their breath: Neuqua Valley, unbeaten going into the Wheaton Classic, was blindsided by adversity during two of its matches. Against Rosary on Friday junior Kaitlynn Novak experienced an asthma attack which nobody saw coming.
"She doesn't have an inhaler. We don't know what happened," Neuqua coach Kelly Simon said. "She just went into some respiratory issue. She and her parents said she'd never had it before."
The next day against Sandburg, Neuqua setter Stacy Cesario went down with an asthma attack and missed the rest of the day. Without Cesario, Neuqua switched from its 6-2 to a 5-1 offense.
"Which we haven't done yet; we had to take a big blocker out," Simon said.
Beyond the 3-2 finish, Simon was pleased with the play of libero Megan Tompkins, and the team's growth as a whole.
"The girls finally broke through," Simon said. "They're one of the best teams I have coached and I think they feel that pressure, that they haven't lived up to my expectations and their expecations for themselves. We finally found that comfort level, playing the way we're capable of."
Red Devils regrouping: After a disappointing first few weeks, Hinsdale Central coach Sheralynn Kellough thought her team had turned the corner in rallying for a three-game win at Glenbard West last Tuesday.
She commented that the Red Devils' practice Thursday was the best they'd looked on the court all season. The next night Hinsdale Central, seeded No. 1 at the Wheaton Classic, won both its pool play matches.
But on Saturday the Red Devils were upset by Rosary in a one-sided quarterfinals match, then dropped their next two matches to Prairie Ridge and Waubonsie Valley.
"Honestly I don't know what happened Saturday," Kellough said. "I don't know if we overlooked Rosary or what. But the wheels came off."
Hinsdale Central is now sitting at 8-7, with much of the core group that went 33-6 last year and went to a sectional final.
"It's still September, and we're going to talk about that today in practice," Kellough said. "Five weeks is still definitely enough time with our talent to turn it around.
"But it will take a lot of discipline from individual players. We need to make up for the ground we've lost. We have our work cut out for us. It's going to have to be an attitude change. We have the components."
Silver Showdown in Elmhurst: York, off to a fantastic 18-1 start, gets a shot at avenging its only loss tonight when Lyons Township comes to town.
Lyons (12-0), last year's Class 4A state runner-up, beat the Dukes 25-14, 22-25, 25-22 in a nonconference match in LaGrange.
"We made a lot of hitting errors that first match and we missed quite a few serves," York coach Patty Iverson said. "We're focusing on controlling those two things. We have to control the attacking. If we do that the rest will fall into place."
York comes in off a tournament championship at Maine East. Iverson pointed out that Katie Gallagher served tremendously over the weekend, Emily Iverson had 6 kills with no errors in the championship, Morgan Semmelhack had a strong tournament and Mary French moved to libero without breaking stride.
"We've been working on getting our middles more involved; there's just little parts of the game we're focusing on," Iverson said. "We just have to bring it all together and play well to beat (Lyons)."