Girls volleyball: Benet rallies for three-set championship
Sarah Kushner had a monster championship match against Benet Saturday afternoon in Aurora.
But it was not enough for the Naperville North girls volleyball team.
Valentina Tabares had the last of her team-best 10 kills as Benet defeated Naperville North for the second time this season in the championship match of the St. Charles East Mizuno Cup at the Great Lakes Center.
Benet improved to 23-4 on the season in capturing its first invitational of the fall with the come-from-behind 21-25, 25-14, 25-20 victory.
"They were kind of frazzled and making more errors than they hoped (in the first set)," said Kushner, the Illinois State University recruit who had match highs of 15 kills and 14 digs. "In the second set is when they really started playing clean. They got a lot of balls up on defense that we are usually scoring on."
The match could very well have been a precursor after the IHSA released its girls volleyball pairings on Friday.
Benet rates a slight edge over second-seeded Naperville North (23-3) as the top seed at the Class 4A Plainfield North sectional.
"We realized that after (the match)," said Benet junior Hattie Monson, who orally committed to Notre Dame as a freshman. "We realized that (Naperville North is) going to be super hard in the (potential sectional) final. The first set, we couldn't get going until the end. We got going and started playing our game after that."
Kyla Kenney and Rachel Muisenga, who is bound for national powerhouse Penn State, added 8 and 5 kills, respectively, for the Redwings against Naperville North.
Allison Van Eekeren had 29 assists in the Redwings' championship match.
"We wanted to know our weaknesses," Monson said. "We worked really hard in practice to get better this week. We have to remember that for the sectional final."
Naperville North turned back DuPage Valley Conference rival Waubonsie Valley in the semifinals to earn its date with Benet.
"There were a couple of points here and there that were the difference (against Benet)," said Kushner.
Linnea Dale had 8 kills to complement the Kushner attack for Naperville North against the Redwings. Grace Selman had a match-best 34 assists in the final for the Huskies.
Benet never led by less than 4 points after Caroline Gard had an ace for an 18-13 cushion in the decisive set.
Host St. Charles East has not had much luck in three-set matches this season.
Plainfield North handed the Saints their eighth loss in the ultimate tiebreaker in the Bronze bracket.
The Saints had earlier turned back DuKane Conference rival Geneva to reach one of the consolation finals. But Plainfield Central prevailed as the Saints (15-10) had to settle for 10th place with the Wildcats winning 12-25, 25-21, 25-19.
Callie Gentry was the Saints' offensive leader in matches against Oswego, Edwardsville, Lincoln-Way Central, Geneva and Plainfield Central.
"We couldn't find spots on the court for our hitters," Gentry said of the final set against Plainfield Central. "It was just little things. We tried to look at the weekend like we're going into the postseason. We were just playing hard the whole time and playing games out."
Clemson-bound setter Mckenna Slavik ran the Saints' offense for the weekend.
Geneva is one match over .500 (14-13) after defeating Normal West in straight sets to finish in 11th.
North Alabama-bound senior Eli Ford led the Vikings with 6 kills in their 25-21, 25-18 victory in the Normal match.
Geneva also defeated Hinsdale South and Prairie Ridge in the two-day tournament.
"I think overall we did very well this weekend," Ford said. "We came in wanting to get our groove back. We don't exactly have the height we have had in the past. We are looking to go pretty far in the postseason."
Rosary defeated Hinsdale Central and Plainfield North in finishing 18th.
"We made some errors against some good teams," Rosary coach Bill Allen said. "(Alyssa Nesterowicz and Anna Pickard) are our go-to hitters. They're our terminators. We rely on (them) to put the ball away."