Naperville North keeps rolling past Naperville Central

Naperville North has gone 8-2 in its last 10 games on the strength of a new strategy that rotates a pair of setters in and out of the lineup and who distributes the ball to the Huskies’ front line.

Against cross-town rival Naperville Central on Thursday, senior setter Matt Thornton and junior setter Gert Lisha combined for 19 set assists, leading to three teammates totaling five or more kills.

The result was a 25-18, 25-12 DuPage Valley Conference victory over the Redhawks, moving the Huskies to 10-6 on the season and 4-2 in DVC play. Naperville Central fell to 7-10, 2-4 in the DVC.

Kyle Losik, Spencer Sauter and Trevor Stables dominated the front of net, while teammate Matt Jennings had two of the Huskies’ six blocks on the night.

“We’ve been running this system since the Tiger Classic,” Naperville North coach Nathan Bornancin said. “The guys are very comfortable hitting off of both setters and have really taken a liking to it. I think our setters are comfortable setting anybody now.”

Neither team led by more than three points at the onset of Game 1. Up 18-16 Naperville North closed out the game on a 7-2 run as Losik had two kills and Jennings contributed a kill and a block in that stretch.

Three attack errors by Naperville Central provided the other three points for the Huskies.

“Naperville Central is always a big rivalry and you don’t want to let up when playing them,” Jennings said. “We played scrappy, didn’t let up behind the net and had some very nice blocks up front.”

The Huskies’ used a 16-4 run in Game 2 to all but put away the Redhawks. With Naperville Central up 5-4, Naperville North began its run on a Redhawks attack error and setting error, giving the Huskies their first lead of the game at 6-5.

Naperville Central committed eight errors in that stretch and its only offensive point came off a kill from Jon Chiczewski. The other three points were from a Naperville North net violation and two service errors.

Thornton added a pair of aces in that run for the Huskies.

“You just can’t give up that kind of run. You have to stop the bleeding at some point,” Naperville Central coach Jeff Danbom said. “We can’t continue to be a team where everyone keeps looking to someone else. Too many imes we let (Naperville North) run their offensive system instead of us running ours.”

An ace by Losik extended the Huskies’ lead to 24-11. Following a kill by Naperville Central’s Parker Duwelius, Dan Koch ended the match with his only kill of the night.