Benet celebrates state volleyball championship

Benet Academy girls volleyball coach Brad Baker still hasn’t gotten his hands around the state championship trophy his team won Saturday night.

“It was a pretty hot commodity,” Baker said.

Players took turns Monday wheeling the trophy in a red toy wagon to classes at the Lisle school — Stanley Cup-style.

Baker didn’t even get a chance to hoist it at Tuesday’s pep rally applauding the Class 4A champions. He was teaching in Palatine.

“It’s more important for the girls to celebrate,” Baker said.

Benet defeated Cary-Grove 25-14, 22-25, 25-16 to win the championship in Normal.

In preparation for Tuesday’s pep rally, students made posters to honor their team. Once the rally started, they blasted out a spontaneous rendition of “We Are the Champions.” And they spent most of the celebration on their feet, saluting the girls with the medals around their necks.

“This is not a team,” Shannon O’Brien, a senior, told the crowd. “This is a family we’ve got here.”

And it really is a family affair for the Haggerty sisters. Meghan is a senior middle blocker and Maddie is a sophomore outside hitter.

But their celebration after Saturday’s victory didn’t last long.

On the way back to the hotel, their dad, Jerry Haggerty, got a call from Meghan telling him she had just dialed 911. Her sister Maddie was suffering from severe stomach pain outside the arena.

An ambulance rushed her to the hospital where she learned an ovarian cyst had burst during the match. She had battled through the pain — delivering 16 kills.

Jerry Haggerty didn’t notice until he saw her on a replay video bending over with her hands on her knees between points.

“She was trying to manage it,” he said.

Maddie’s performance was appropriate in a victory Haggerty described as “graceful under pressure.”

“They never panicked,” he said.

Of all the memorable moments during the match, Jerry Haggerty said he’ll never forget one: watching Jessica Jendryk cheer on her younger sister Jenna, a senior outside hitter.

Jessica Jendryk finally had her chance to watch the Redwings take home their first state volleyball championship. She was a middle blocker when St. Charles East upset Benet in the 2008 championship.

But she had to play Saturday for the University of Illinois. Her dad, Jeff Jendryk, said she had to ask her coach for special privileges to leave right after the match on Champaign’s campus to drive to Normal to see her sister play against Cary-Grove.

“Can you stall the game?” Jendryk said his daughter texted him. “I’ve got to get there.”

And her arrival made her father proud.

“That was the defining moment,” Jendryk said.