Benet takes SCN in 2
While it might not erase the sting of how the 2008 season ended for Benet, the Redwings did get back at St. Charles to start their 2009 campaign.
A different St. Charles - North - lost 25-15, 25-21 Thursday night in Lisle, the first time the Redwings were on the court together since St. Charles East beat them for the Class 4A state championship last November.
Benet (1-0) lost five Division I players from that team, yet still has plenty of firepower behind returnees Sierra Young and Gina Finke, and new players in the rotation like sophomore Meghan Haggerty.
"These girls expect to be very good and contend for a state championship," Benet coach Brad Baker said. "It was good to get the first-game jitters out, to have some stretches of playing well and see where we can be and also learn about things we can do better."
Young led the Redwings with 5 kills in Game 1, then Finke added 5 in the second while Lara Ontko, Ashley Veselik, Meghan Byrne, Alyson Farm and Kaitlyn King took turns contributing to the season-opening win.
"We were happy with how we ended last year, we had a lot of memories, it was awesome, but we have unfinished business we want to do," senior libero Brianne Riley said.
St. Charles North (0-2) played well early, staying with Benet to 7-7. Riley's hustling dig led to an eventual kill from Young and an 11-8 Benet lead.
The North Stars followed with their first two hitting errors of the game to fall behind 13-8, part of a 15-4 Benet surge to break the game open.
Katie Fuerst's block momentarily stopped the Redwings' roll before Benet closed out Game 1 when Haggerty took a set from King and hammered the ball down.
St. Charles North led for parts of Game 2, yet still struggled with cold stretches when its serve-receive and hitting faltered. Benet took a 14-10 lead only to watch the North Stars battle back to tie at 18 and 19.
Another Young kill gave Benet the lead for good at 20-19, and the Redwings finished the match with a block from Finke.
Olivia Schneider (11 assists), Emma Headley (6 kills), Fuerst (5 kills) and sophomore Jill Stolzenburg (3 blocks) led the North Stars.
"Story of last night too," first-year North Stars coach Lindsey Hawkins said of a loss to York. "We let them score too many consecutive points on us and we couldn't execute. We really need to work on our serve-receive right now and being smarter with the ball."
The North Stars committed seven passing errors in Game 2.
"We were serving to all the right zones and getting them out of system, which led us to getting perfect balls," Riley said.