Naperville North steps past Wheaton North
A word of warning to the rest of the DuPage Valley Conference - Naperville North looks like it has found its stride.
In their most complete performance of the young season, the Huskies rolled past Wheaton North 25-13, 25-16 on Thursday in Naperville.
Naperville North (13-4, 5-1) hosts West Chicago, which lost to Naperville Central on Thursday, for the conference lead Tuesday night.
"We played a consistent match against a really nice team," Huskies coach Jennifer Urban said. "Overall the execution is just a lot better on our side. We haven't been giving up big runs lately."
Audrey Wilson had 14 kills, Kaia Schwartz 8 kills and Alissa Valentine 21 assists and 10 digs for the Huskies, who are 6-1 since a disappointing loss to Naperville Central.
"We had a really good tournament last weekend (at the Wheaton Classic, where the Huskies went 4-1)," said Huskies senior Audrey Wilson, "and we finally all clicked. We've all come together and know how each other plays now. We're ready for the rest of the season."
The Huskies never trailed, jumping out to big early leads in both games. Up 5-4 in Game 1, Naperville North got clicking with a Schwartz kill, 2 Wilson kills and a kill by Carly Warner on an overpass.
Wilson knocked down 8 kills in the first game. Three of them, including the game-clincher, came from the back row. The four-year varsity starter is playing full rotation for the first time this year.
"I love playing all the way around," Wilson said. "It's so much easier to get into the swing of things."
Game 2 was never in doubt, either. The Huskies went on an 8-0 run to open up an 11-2 advantage. Schwartz had 2 kills and a block from her spot in the middle.
Fellow middle Sidney Sauter put down a pair of kills to finish off the match.
"Kaia and Sidney have been coming up huge for us," Urban said. "We want to get them a lot of attempts in every match."
Megan Thorton had 18 digs, Liz Gulick 6 kills and Katie Thornton 10 assists for Wheaton North (7-10, 3-3).
The Falcons find themselves going in the opposite direction as Naperville North. Wheaton North has lost six of its last seven matches since a big win over Wheaton Warrenville South and one over West Aurora.
Hardly a coincidence, sophomore setter Katie Thornton is adapting to playing with two broken fingers in her left hand.
"It kind of affects our coverage and changes her sets," Wheaton North coach Carole Kristensen said, "so we've been trying to adjust to that. I know Katie was getting frustrated out there tonight.
"We're just not making adjustments and we're letting teams score too many points. We can't come back from that. We couldn't execute a play and got stuck in a rut."