Girls volleyball: Benet squeaks past Naperville North
Going into Wednesday night's Class 4A Plainfield North sectional, Benet and Naperville North had faced each other twice during the girls volleyball regular season.
There would be no surprises coming with the third battle. Two talented and successful teams took to the court and momentum could only be grabbed in small amounts by either team.
The Redwings (34-5), the sectional's top seed, got just enough to stop the second-seeded Huskies to win 25-21, 26-24.
Next for Benet is a 6 p.m. Friday supersectional showdown against Bloomington in Normal. The Purple Raiders won their own sectional in three sets over O'Fallon.
"We knew that with this being a big game, we had to finish every point and focus on every point," said Benet sophomore Rachel Muisenga. "We talked about different types of situations like if we were down a point, we were going to get the next point."
Naperville North (31-7) led for the first half of the opening set until Benet's Valentina Tabares smashed a kill to tie the game at 16.
Kills by the Huskies' Grace Selman and Ellie Hall tied the set at 17 and 18, respectively.
However, Anne Marie Remmes' kill put Benet up 19-18 and the team kept the lead for the rest of the way. An ace by Kyla Kenney gave the Redwings their 25th point.
Benet's Hattie Monson said that not wanting the season to end is the strongest motivation there is and the team had to be ready for whatever Naperville North put across the net.
"We knew it would be very close and we practice for every situation on the court," she said.
The second set saw the Huskies build up a 9-4 advantage on another Kenney kill.
But an ace by Allison Van Eekeren, a kill by Caroline Doyle and a double hit by Naperville North pulled the Redwings to within 10-8. The Huskies soon after led 13-11 and that would be their last lead of the match.
Benet built up a 4-point lead twice, but Naperville North stayed on their heels. Sarah Kushner's kill tied it at 22, and Linnea Dale's smash deadlocked the set at 23 and a serving error by Benet made it 24-24.
Kenney's kill made it 25-24 and a Naperville North hitting error gave the Redwings the final point it needed for the match and the victory.
Benet coach Brad Baker said while the Redwings have been highly successful so far this season, they are capable of improving even more at this late point of the campaign.
"I hope to get better. Tomorrow at practice I hope we get better," he said. The Redwings have not faced Bloomington this season.
A memorable fall ends for Naperville North, a team with eight seniors.
"We had a great group of seniors, four of them (Selman, Molly Russell, Kushner and Kayla Griesbach) were captains. We had just five returning players from last season's team that won 30 matches. This year we won conference and went one game further (in the postseason)," Huskies coach Jennifer Urban said.