Girls volleyball: Benet jets past St. Charles North

A young St. Charles North team flashed some strong defense and passing at the start of each set while hanging tough at highly regarded Benet on Wednesday night, and then poof.

After scratching and clawing their way to a 9-9 tie in each set in Lisle, the North Stars just couldn't hang with the nationally ranked, unbeaten Redwings, who seemed to pick their game up a notch as if they were flipping on a switch in the 25-11, 25-14 nonconference sweep.

Benet, fresh off a Wheaton North tourney title, played a crisp match that featured just three missed serves and just a few hitting errors on the night.

"What we talked about just now, both sets until about point 10 we were playing pretty well and then they would warm up at point 10 and then it was like holy (cow), they were running really fast," North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said after her team dropped to 4-4 on the new year. "We graduated a lot last year so we're trying to figure out some things. We're a little inexperienced in varsity minutes."

Experience is not an issue with the Redwings, who entered the year with one of the top liberos in the nation in Hattie Monson, a top-notch setter in Penn-State bound Rachel Muisenga, and veteran outside hitters Sophie Gregus and Kyla Kenney.

Muisenga, who runs the offense this season after two years of hitting during the high school season, had 25 assists and also a lot of fun. She had fun connecting with the Illinois-bound Gregus on 7 kills, including a trio of winners that helped turned that 9-9 tie in the second set into a 16-10 lead by Benet on its way to finishing off the sweep.

"That's one of our goals, stay clean throughout the match," the star setter said. "It was definitely a good start. We've been taking about playing clean in practice, trying to play error free and that really helped us out."

With a veteran group of outsides joined by an emerging group of middles, Muisenga can't seem to go wrong setting up anyone on the floor.

"Spoiled, that's the word, yes," the 6-foot junior said. "I'm having a lot of fun. We should do good things and I'm excited."

Gregus is excited to be healthy this fall after a back injury sidelined her for several months last year that included the summer and the start of the high school campaign. "I knew I had to be healthy this year. I wanted to be more a part of the team," Gregus said. "I'm definitely feeling better than I ever have."

The Redwings closed out the opener with a 16-2 charge that featured a pair of Kenney kills that put an exclamation point on the impressive first game. Kenney had 6 kills on the night and Colleen McGuire added 5 kills for the balanced attack.

For St. Charles North, Allyson Warburton paced the attack with 6 kills and Madison Gorniak sparked a solid defense with 10 digs.