Girls volleyball: St. Charles North breaks through against Benet
Check off another first for the St. Charles North girls volleyball program.
A year after the North Stars reached the state tournament for the first time, they now have their first win over Benet.
It's not like St. Charles North hasn't had its chances. The North Stars have played Benet for years, sometimes multiple times, and until Tuesday they had never come out on top.
That all changed with a 25-21, 25-21 victory on their home floor, spearheaded by seniors GiGi Crescenzo and Katie Lanz and junior Kyla Lannert.
All three contributed in multiple ways. The Memphis-bound Crescenzo had 7 kills and a team-high 12 digs, Lanz (UNC-Wilmington) chipped in 7 kills, 7 assists and 9 digs, and Lannert continued her strong play with 9 assists, 7 digs and 8 kills.
"It feels so great," Crescenzo said. "We worked really hard. That was one of our goals this year, beat them one time before we left."
Maddie Gorniak added 2 aces and 7 digs as the North Stars (6-1) came from behind in both sets.
Benet and St. Charles North are the top two teams in the Daily Herald Top 20, ranked first and second, respectively.
"It's a crazy feeling," Lannert said. "I think it speaks volumes about how far we can go this year and what we can do."
Benet (4-2) started strong, getting an early ace from Allison Van Eekeren and a kill by Maeve Nelligan while building an 8-4 lead.
Lanz landed a kill just inside the back line, then jump-served an ace that pulled North even at 9-9. The set stayed close, tied a final time at 20-20 when Kyla Kenney put a ball down for Benet.
Lannert won the next point for the North Stars by slamming back a bad pass from Benet, and Crescenzo tooled a ball for a 22-20 lead. Benet made a ball-handling error on set point.
The Redwings again went ahead in the second set. A winner from Valentina Tabares made it 12-11 before the North Stars took control with a 6-1 run that included back-to-back kills by Crescenzo.
After a Lanz kill put the North Stars ahead 22-19, Benet coach Brad Baker called timeout. The Redwings came out of the timeout and played a great point, repeatedly blocking and digging balls coming at them.
But North didn't back down either, and Lanz finally ended the longest rally of the night with a kill that landed just inside the line to make it 23-19.
Moments later Lannert set Lanz who slammed the ball down to end the match.
"Against a team like Benet, it's the name, it's scary, it carries a lot of weight and a lot of history to it," North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "And I think the girls weren't scared at all. That's what allowed them to come back in some of those longer rallies.
"It was a big win. They are a really good team. Their blocking was phenomenal. We had to use a lot of shots and play good defense. They took us out of our game a little bit and I was really proud of the girls how they rallied back and kept their composure."
The North Stars bounced back from a loss to Sandburg on Saturday.
"We saw their setters were running out of the middle so we tried to set the pins so their setters would have to move back and forth when they were blocking and tire them out," Lannert said.
Kenney led Benet with 7 kills. The Redwings also have a loss to Montini in the early part of the season.
"I'm not sure I've seen a team of ours in the last 10 years play with less emotion, less passion," Baker said. "It looks to me like they think it's going to be easy. We've won all the time so we're going to continue to win - that's not how things work. You have to earn it. If you don't have that passion, our skills when you get to those tight matches is not going to matter. It's whoever can have that fire and that will and we're not seeing any of that."