Girls volleyball: Kushner, Huskies ace Naperville Central

Knowing all too well that Naperville Central would put up a good fight against their rivals, the Huskies found themselves in a late hole in the first set but did have a secret weapon ready to seal the deal.

The Redhawks had built a 21-16 lead with an 8-0 run in the opening set of Tuesday's DuPage Valley Conference match, only to have the visitors rally behind the strong serving of sophomore Syndey Kushner, whose ace closed out the first set 25-23. The 14-3 Huskies then completed the sweep with a 25-16 win in the second set to move to 3-0 in the DVC.

Kushner served out the final six points of the opening set, with one tough serve leading to an easy kill by teammate Kara Oxenknect, and then the clinching ace.

"I feel like I'm getting a lot better with my consistency with my serving," said Kushner, who also had nine digs in the match. "When I'm having a run like that I try and make them tougher so we can make it tougher on them to run an offense."

Naperville North carried that momentum into the second set and jumped ahead 15-8 after following one of Paige Lauterwasser's 10 kills on the night. But the Redhawks, who were led by senior Kenzie Brower's 9 kills and 5 digs, battled back to within 17-15 before coming up short.

"Central is a team that we have the utmost respect for and we know they're always going to give us a tough match," Huskies coach Jen Urban said. "But I thought this was one of Syndey's best matches for us. She's been working hard on her serving and her defense and it was great to see her do so well out there tonight."

Lauterwasser was happy to see her young teammate play so well and just as happy to be playing a full season this fall, as opposed to the COVID-shortened campaign last season.

"I'm so grateful for her and her serving," she said. "When we finished off that first set we were all so excited and it carried over to the second set. We knew how Central felt after almost winning and we knew they would come back at us hard. We have a great group of girls this year and I'm so glad we have more than six weeks to play together."

For Naperville Central, the young squad continues to try different lineups. Rachel Chalkey added 4 kills for the squad (7-15, 1-2).

"We have a lot of kids playing varsity for the first time and we're trying people in different positions," Redhawks coach Brie Isaacson said. "We knew it wasn't over and that Naperville North is always good, but I thought we played hard the whole match."