Girls volleyball: Wheaton North has fun, edges Naperville North
Nervous, Haley Horner?
"It's worse being on the sidelines," said Wheaton North's 6-foot-5 opposite hitter. "It's so fun to play in these types of matches. All the pressure makes it so exciting because we don't play these types of matches all the time. It was so fun."
Horner had 12 kills and junior McKenna Otto added 6 kills, including back-to-back putaways to end the match. Wheaton North rallied from a 24-22 deficit and fought off five set points in Game 2 to defeat Naperville North 25-22, 31-29 in the Class 4A Naperville North regional.
Wheaton North (30-7) will play St. Francis, a 25-15, 25-17 winner Thursday over Metea Valley, in a sectional semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Geneva.
Horner rotated out of Game 2 with the Falcons clinging to a 22-21 lead. Naperville North (26-14) took advantage of her absence to go on a 3-0 run behind junior Ari Budnik and sophomore Sarah Kushner.
After her teammates fought off set points down 24-22, 24-23, 25-24, and 26-25, Horner finally rotated back into the game at 26-26. The Huskies earned another set point at 27-26 on Kushner's 10th kill of the match, but a Horner kill tied it at 27-27.
Wheaton North earned match points at 28-27 and 29-28, but Naperville North answered both times. That's when Otto took over. She powered shots off the Naperville North block on consecutive rallies to give Wheaton North its first regional title since 2002.
"It was a team effort," Otto said. "Everyone played a part. It was a fun game. It was back and forth. We really played together. We were all energetic. During the timeout (trailing 24-22) we talked about just putting the ball away because we knew how badly we wanted it."
The win was the third for the Falcons in three meetings with the Huskies this season, but any resemblance between Thursday's regional squeaker and the previous two matches was purely coincidental.
"Their outside hitters, Ari (Budnik) and Sarah (Kushner), are phenomenal," said Wheaton North coach Carole Kristensen. "We were able to shut them down in the first two matches we played against them, but not tonight.
"Defense wins championships," she added. "I told the girls we have to go after them. They're not going to lay down. It's hard to beat a team three times in a season. We just executed maybe a little bit more and it went our way tonight."
Wheaton North also received 17 assists and 4 digs from Brooke Syswerda, 13 assists and 8 digs from Ellie Holland, 7 digs from Elizabeth LaBue, 5 kills and 3 blocks from Ari Clark and 4 kills each from Kailyn Williams and Emmy Barnhorst.
Mackenzie Schulte had 12 assists and 5 digs, Lindsey Anderson had 14 assists and 8 digs, Rachel Shuty contributed 17 digs and freshman Linnea Dale added 4 kills for Naperville North.
"That was by far the best match that our girls played the entire season," said Naperville North coach Jennifer Urban. "It was so great to see us playing our best volleyball when it mattered the most. I could not have been more proud of the way we continued to side out and pass and play defense and give our hitters opportunities to score."
Naperville North figures to be the class of the DuPage Valley Conference next year with every starter returning with the exception of Shuty.
"We definitely were the younger team on the court I would say 90 percent of the season," Urban said. "It wasn't something that we used as an excuse, but it was a reality. To see the growth that we did in the short period time with the younger girls was really exciting."