Well-prepared Redahwks beat WW South

Naperville Central coach Brie Isaacson and senior Mary Carroll laughed at the suggestion the Redhawks practice for four hours every day.

But really, practice is no joke to the Redhawks.

"I try to make our practices tougher than the matches," Isaacson said. "When they come to the matches, they're prepared."

Naperville Central looked the team that doesn't fold under pressure Thursday, fending off a game challenge from visiting Wheaton Warrenville South 25-11, 25-20.

The two teams were tied 9-9 in Game 1 before the Redhawks rolled off 9 straight points. In the second game Naperville Central (17-2, 7-1 DuPage Valley Conference) rallied from an early 14-9 deficit.

"In practice we'll be down, and we'll have to mentally push ourselves out of it," Carroll said. "We try to apply what we learn in practice to the games."

Carroll had back-to-back kills to finish off the big 9-point run in Game 1 touched off by 4 Kelsey Hoey aces. Meghan Bray, who led Naperville Central with 9 kills, had kills for three of the last four Redhawks points to finish the game.

WW South (11-8, 4-4) roared out to an early lead in Game 2 behind 3 Dayana Rodriguez kills and blocks from Katie Henning and Shealynn Kolosky. Kolosky's block made it 14-9. The Tigers clearly made it a point of emphasis to set up blocks against Naperville Central's hard-hitting outsides Bray and Emily McGee.

"We have to be able to put hands on balls," WW South coach Bill Schreier said, "we have to be able to slow down teams at the point of attack, and we have to play defense behind it. For the most part we did that."

Kills by Nicole Sarby and Carroll started a Redhawks rally that tied it at 15-15. At 17-17 Bray went high for a kill and a tip kill to give Naperville Central the lead for good. McGee threw down 4 kills on the Redhawks' last 5 points, including at match point after getting frustrated at times early against WW South's blockers.

"We can all calm each other down when we're stressed out. We have each other's backs," Carroll said. "We relax, come out and get a big point to change the momentum."

Rodriguez had 5 kills and 4 digs and Jessica Dattalo 9 digs for WW South. Jackie Wolfe added 7 assists and Monika Stanciauskas 2 kills and 3 blocks.

"At various points tonight we needed that play. That play is not happening," Schreier said. "That's the frustration. I would love for us to make our mistakes at 5-5. We seem to make our mistakes later in games."

Carroll had 6 kills, Jill Fields 12 digs and Hoey 23 assists for Naperville Central, which won its fourth straight match after taking second at the Wheaton Classic. The Redhawks figure to get tested next weekend at St. Charles East's Mizuno Cup. They are at Naperville North Oct. 15.

But first things first.

"Our focus is always the next game," Isaacson said. "Right now our focus is the next practice, because that's the important thing to make us better. For us West Aurora is our next most important match because that's what we have Tuesday."