Girls volleyball: WW South shows how it's grown vs. Naperville North

When the Wheaton Warrenville South girls volleyball program played plenty of freshmen and sophomores two and three years ago, those varsity seasons included some rough patches and a few too many losses.

But there always was a shining light at the end of the tunnel.

Now the 2019 version of the Tigers has arrived and the light is shining bright on a squad that features 11 seniors to go along with some talented non-seniors. Monday night the 6-3 Tigers swept visiting Naperville North 25-17, 25-19 as the program continued to show growth.

Veteran coach Bill Schreier is enjoying things these days as he watches the Tigers continue to evolve and is hopeful that the great jump in results from 2017 to 2018 will leap more in 2019.

The hosts jumped ahead 8-0 in the opener and then held on after the Huskies (4-3) twice fought back to within 12-10 and 16-14. With four-year starting setter Sarah Burau running the offense well and junior Zayna Meyer making a smooth transition to the outside, WW South finished the first game with a 9-3 run and then never trailed in the second game.

"We have not traditionally been getting off to a fast start so I was liking that tonight," said Schreier, who called the match a "signature win" that he hopes will further the team's growth. "We upped our game. It was not so much that they weren't, as we were."

The Tigers, who grew and rebounded enough last year to win 21 matches, were too balanced for a Naperville North team that was missing a pair of outside hitters, one due to injury, the other due to illness. Coach Jen Urban said both Rachel Rahtz and Eva Hartung could return to practice Wednesday.

For Meyer, who sets during the club season and set in a 6-2 attack for the Tigers last year along with Burau, this fall brought a move to outside hitter. She's making the move quite nicely, as indicated by her match-high 11 kills to go along with 10 digs.

"I think this year we just have so many great players all around," said the 6-foot-1 junior, who will set at BYU in college. "Our middles are outstanding - Kaileigh (Ammons) and Annika (Barron), and Rachel's a great setter. All around … Darby Harris is an amazing libero … they're all so good."

Meyer credits the 11 seniors with helping her when she was a freshman and with helping build the program back up.

"When I was a freshman there were so many sophomores that I looked up to. We have just all grown as players through club season and high school and you can see it on the court. We're all learning how to play new positions and everything," she said

Harris led the defense with 14 digs. Burau finished with 18 assists and 2 aces.

To the Huskies' credit, they battled with some inexperienced players making their varsity debuts and made the Tigers earn their victory. Middle Ellie Hall led the way with 6 kills and sophomore outside Kara Oxenknecht added 5 kills.

"We made a lot of errors tonight and it's hard to keep yourself in the match when you make that many errors," Huskies coach Jen Urban said. "We had several girls who had their varsity debuts today, so it was a tough matchup for us. You can see they've got 11 seniors on their roster so they're not new to the varsity scene."