Girls volleyball: Closset, Naperville Central swing a win
You don't perfect your volleyball swing the way Naperville Central's Kayla Closset has without plenty of work in the gym.
Tuesday night at Downers Grove North, the Redhawks senior outside hitter led her team to a solid sweep of the Trojans with a team-high 9 kills, but afterward she wanted to talk mostly about getting back to work.
The four-year varsity player actually missed a shot here or there but finished strong, recording her final two kills of the match for points 23 and 24 as Naperville Central held off a late charge by the home team in the second game to complete a 25-20, 25-22 sweep.
"Downers Grove North is just a good team and we knew coming in that we were going to have to fight and give it all we've got," said Closset, whose team is off to an 8-1 start this fall.
"But I think as a team we're just excited to get back in and get better at practice."
When asked about allowing the Trojans to string together some points and stick around in the second game after the Redhawks had built a 21-14 lead, Closset said: "I think we're doing pretty good so far, but again getting back to practice, just working on the little things we need to work on, like finding our weaknesses on the court and in the game, and just getting back to practice and working on it is important."
A couple misfires and a couple net violations by the visitors helped the Trojans close to within 22-21 in the second game, but a program that took second in the state in Class 4A in 2018 deserved some credit for hanging tough throughout. Six-foot sophomore outside hitter Gwendolyn Wolkow slammed away to a match-high 13 kills and showed that the program may be young this year but still a tough out.
"Tonight I felt like we were kind of streaky, but I give some credit to Downers North. I thought we hit a point where we were going to play consistently and then they picked up their play," Redhawks coach Brie Isaacson said. "(Wolkow) hits so hard and all over the place that it prevented us from getting into the rhythm we've been in other matches that we've played. So there's work to do, but I want to give credit to them as well."
While Wolkow helped her team stay in the match, the veteran Redhawks had just too much firepower and experience. Junior setter Grace Butler was solid and continued to feed Closset late, and junior Kaitlin Skowronski ended the match with a kill on the left side that completed the sweep.
"She's a senior and she's been on this team as long as anyone can remember, but she's human," Isaacson said of her star. "She's going to make mistakes. But I think we rely on her as a captain and as a four-year varsity player to get us out and she does."
Trojans coach Mark Wasik, whose 1-2 team entered the match off an impressive defeat of Mother McAuley, expects his youthful squad to grow quickly.
"I've got five sophomores up on varsity and we were outclassed tonight just because you could tell they were a little more game ready," he said. "This is not a team that will keep me up at night from the standpoint that we don't have the horses, it's just going to be youth and we'll work things out. All around we can be way better and we're just getting started."