Downers Grove North wins own tournament
Call it Mark Wasik’s own form of cost-benefit analysis, applied to the volleyball court.
The decision has sure paid off for Downers Grove North.
Wasik’s Trojans beat Chicago Public League champion Whitney Young 25-20, 25-12 on Saturday to win the title of their Downers Grove North Invite.
It’s Downers Grove North’s first tournament title in Wasik’s four years as head coach and continues his team’s red-hot October. The Trojans (20-15) are 12-1 since Oct. 1.
“I’ve seen teams in the past fizzle or hit the wall this time of year,” Wasik said. “I feel like right now we’re peaking.”
Coincidence or not, it was that first weekend of October at the Asics Challenge that Wasik switched to a 5-1 set with senior Taylor Kasal exclusively setting. Kasal and Jessie Tulacka had both set out of a 6-2 prior to the move.
“It’s made a difference,” Wasik said. “At one point we were wanting to get swings out of Taylor, too. But the value of her putting the ball where our hitters need it is greater than that of getting her swings.
“It meant moving Jessie to the outside where she can swing middle back where before those two were setting a 6-2 so she was playing right back. It’s tougher to get more swings from the right side of the back row. Now she can bring that middle-back attack. It was a two-fold move. The second we did it things worked much more solid and we sided out much more quickly. We lost to Lyons really badly after playing five straight matches and we thought, ‘We gotta make some changes. This is just not going to get it done.’ So we decided to make the changes.”
Kasal had 17 assists, Tulacka 10 kills and Katherine Mahlke 11 kills for Downers Grove North against Whitney Young.
Kasal missed the season’s first two weeks with a sprained ankle. She hasn’t got caught up in a Trojans’ record that’s hovered at or below .500 much of the year — not at all indicative of the team’s talent level or the No. 2 sectional seed they earned.
“To be honest I never think about our record and I don’t know it,” Kasal said. “I just come to the games, I play my heart out and it really showed today.”
Downers Grove North swept all five of its matches in two sets Saturday, beating Hinsdale Central for the second time this season, 26-24, 25-6 in the semifinals. The Red Devils played without star outside Ally Davis, who reinjured her knee Tuesday against York.
West Chicago (22-13) went 3-2 at the tournament, finishing on a high note. The Wildcats were down 21-18 in the second set of the third-place match with Hinsdale Central but stormed back to win it 25-21, 26-24.
It’s been a topsy-turvy season after a 13-0 start, but after a three-set win over Naperville Central Thursday the Wildcats are feeling good going into the playoffs.
“I think we definitely have the potential to win a regional and go far,” Wildcats senior Julia Conard said. “We just need to really focus on our weaknesses and work on correcting those.”