York hands Benet first loss

Benet coach Brad Baker can point to one clear difference between his team and York right now — experience.

The Redwings experienced their first loss Wednesday.

Four days after dropping a three-set match to Benet at the Benet Invite, No. 1 York turned the tables with a 25-23, 25-21 win over the sixth-ranked Redwings in Lisle.

“Tonight they played like a team that has everybody coming back,” Baker said. “We only have two and a half starters back. We have a lot of room to grow.”

York's attack was much more well-rounded than the first meeting. Caroline Rose, who put down 21 kills in Saturday's loss, had 10, and fellow outside Melissa Deatsch had 8, with 3 from Morgan Semmelhack.

“We had all of our hitters on,” Rose said. “They really didn't know where the ball was going because we could have set it to anyone.”

York (6-1) perhaps took advantage of Benet's youth in both sets, going on critical runs while the Redwings (7-1) were on a rotation that had senior Jenna Jendryk on the bench.

In the first set an 8-0 Benet run had erased a 15-8 York lead, the Redwings taking their first lead at 16-15. Benet led 20-17 after a Meghan Haggerty kill, but York rolled off the next 4 points. The Dukes scored their last 6 points of the set off Benet errors.

“There are a lot of areas we need to work on,” Baker said.

Benet led 14-13 in the second set, but a Redwings hitting error and Katie Gallagher ace started a 5-0 York run that gave the Dukes the lead for good.

Deatsch's back-row kill capped off the key stretch. York's back-row attacking was almost 100 percent for the match.

“We did a really good job with that,” York coach Patty Iverson said. “Caroline was able to get some of those in the first match, but Melissa struggled a little bit the last time. She played great today.

“We're running a 5-1 and we have a relatively inexperienced second middle, so we really need those back-row attacks,” Iverson added. “To be able to have that attacking behind her really helps out.”

Four of Rose's eight kills came out of the back row, the fourth giving the Dukes a 22-19 lead in the second set.

“Caroline Rose is a great player, and she was good tonight,” Baker said. “We tried some different stuff against the back-row attack, but when you can hit the line on the back-row attack it's hard to stop. She hit the line twice from the back row. What are you going to do?”

Benet got within 22-21 in the second set on a Maddie Haggerty ace but gave back a point on a hitting error. A tip kill by Deatsch and Sam Schrenker's fourth block closed out the match.

Benet was hurt by its passing. Setter Hannah Kaminsky, scrambling all night, had just 14 assists in 49 attempts as opposed to Gallagher's 25 assists in 30 attempts for York.

“Their serving tonight was excellent and they were in system a lot more than we were,” Baker said. “We need to clean that up a little bit.”

Jendryk had 9 kills and 3 blocks and Meghan Haggerty 3 kills and 4 blocks. Rose also had 11 digs.

“We didn't do anything different this match,” Rose said. “Everything was just a little bit cleaner and crisper this time.”