Benet holds off West Aurora

In the end Benet simply had too much size and offensive versatility for West Aurora to overcome.

In its 25-22 and 25-18 straight-sets win over the eighth-seeded Blackhawks, top-seeded Benet captured its fifth consecutive girls volleyball regional championship Thursday night in Lisle.

The Redwings (34-3) advance to the Class 4A West Aurora sectional on Tuesday to play No. 13 Oswego in the first semifinal.

West Aurora had its campaign close at 24-13.

Meghan Haggerty and Lauren Carlini will be future collegiate teammates at Wisconsin, and the teams’ respective offensive standouts came to a similar conclusion after the match.

“They gave us one of their best games,” the senior middle blocker said after leading the Redwings with a match-high 9 kills and a pair of critical aces down the stretch of the second game. “They played with a lot of heart. They were fighting for everything.”

Carlini had her sterling junior year come to a close after leading West Aurora with 8 kills and 13 assists.

“We gave our maximum effort on every point,” Carlini said. “We gave them a run for their money.”

The two games had a very similar feel as Benet created early separation, only to see West Aurora mount continuous comebacks.

There were 5 ties in the two games, and West Aurora closed to within a point on 10 separate occasions after falling behind early.

But Benet, which trailed only twice the entire match, always found a formula to keep the Blackhawks at bay.

“We just tried to play consistent volleyball,” Benet coach Brad Baker said. “We wanted to play through the runs, good or bad.”

Maddie Haggerty, the Redwings’ imposing sophomore star, had consecutive points in the opener to retain a 3-point lead late.

The 6-foot-1 outside hitter had an ace to bring Benet within game point, and Jenna Jendryk had the clinching kill after Carlini and Peyton McKenzie both staved off game points for West Aurora.

“Our serve-receive was very good tonight,” the elder Haggerty said. “We were able to move the ball around a lot, whether right, left or in the middle.”

The Redwings’ height advantage would ultimately proved to be insurmountable for West Aurora.

“It’s rare to see a high school team with this much size,” Baker said of his five players 6-1 or better.

“They used their height to their advantage,” Carlini said.

Abriya Zeitz spearheaded a 6-1 second-game West Aurora run to give the Blackhawks their final lead of the night at 15-14.

But Benet capitalized on a series of West Aurora rules infractions, and the younger Haggerty capped the Redwings’ 11-3 match-closing run with the last of her 3 blocks.

Hannah Kaminsky orchestrated the Redwings’ offense with a match-high 19 assists; Maddie Haggerty, Gabby Pethokoukis and Jendryk combined for 16 kills for Benet.

“Benet is a fabulous team,” West Aurora coach Kari Nicholson said.

McKenzie and Kaitlyn Richter combined for 11 kills for West Aurora.