Marist just as tough as Benet expected

For one dominating set, Marist barely looked like it belonged on the same court as Benet.

Quick night? Nora Young knew better.

“(Marist coach Natalie Holder) was my coach in club, and she prides herself on having a mentally tough team,” the Benet senior said. “We knew they were going to come out with a lot of fire.”

Sure enough, visiting Marist came back to deal the No. 2-ranked Redwings a difficult 13-25, 26-24, 25-22 loss in front of a packed house Thursday night in Lisle.

Benet (19-3, 4-2 East Suburban Catholic Conference) led 23-22 in the second set and, after trailing 19-13 in the third, came back to go ahead 22-21.

But the Redwings couldn’t close it out, losing for the second time in three matches after an 11-match win streak.

“That’s why you play three games,” Benet coach Brad Baker said. “You know Marist is going to come back strong in the second game. It happens all the time in volleyball. We needed to step up and Marist just played better in the second game.”

Marist (22-5, 5-1), which has played without injured 6-foot-4 South Carolina recruit Lauren Zielinski all season and with just two seniors on the court, looked on the verge of dropping its third straight after two losses at the Asics Challenge and a defeat Tuesday at Providence.

Down 22-21 in the third the RedHawks got serve back on a Benet net violation, and Marist’s Kirsten Ivkovic blocked Benet’s Meghan Haggerty. Benet hit one long to set up match point for Marist, and a poor Redwings set led to a hitting error. Kelly Marcinek had 8 kills and 5 aces and Mallory Salis 7 kills for the RedHawks.

Staring right at a fourth loss in six days, Holder didn’t lose faith in her girls.

“I knew they would do it,” Holder said. “It was a matter of when they were going to do it.”

Benet played as good a set as it has all season in the first.

Maddie Haggerty put down 4 kills and a block, one of 6 Redwings blocks in the set, and Jenna Jendryk had 3 kills and 2 blocks. The Redwings committed just 5 errors all set.

That momentum didn’t carry over to the second set, Marist jumping out to quick leads of 3-0 and 7-3.

“Our passing got a little bit worse and theirs got a lot better,” Baker said, “and it just continued into the third game. Give credit to Marist. Their hitters stepped up when they needed them to. We got passive and started tipping and rolling, and you’re not going to beat a good team tipping and rolling.”

A 10-1 Marist run midway through the third set seemed to give the RedHawks a commanding 19-13 advantage. Benet roared back behind Jendryk’s 8 kills in the set and went ahead 21-20 on Meghan Haggerty’s kill off a quick set from Hannah Kaminsky.

“At the end of the games, we needed to finish points,” Baker said. “Marist made the plays and when we needed to at the third of the third we didn’t make enough plays.”

Jendryk had 13 kills and 4 blocks, Meghan Haggerty 8 kills and 4 blocks, Maddie Haggerty 8 kills and Young 7 kills for Benet.

“It was a great fight. That was great volleyball,” Young said. “We just gave it away. We need to work on putting balls away. Jenna was on fire in that third set; all we had to do was get it to her.”