Girls volleyball: Naperville North sweeps Naperville Central

Paige Lauterwasser has become a quick study under the tutelage of Ellie Hall.

A sophomore for the Naperville North girls volleyball team, Lauterwasser and Hall collaborated on the decisive point against Naperville Central Tuesday evening.

With Naperville Central desperately seeking to extend the schools' DuPage Valley Conference match, the Naperville North sophomore and senior combined to block the Redhawks' final kill attempt.

With its 25-14, 25-22 straight sets victory at home, Naperville North extended its modest season-opening winning streak to three matches overall and in the league.

Naperville Central fell to 3-1, 2-1.

"We have really good chemistry in general," Lauterwasser said. "That was a good way to close out the game. It's important to have good communication with the middles."

The Redhawks were clearly in need of a rejuvenating force to turn the second-set tide.

Naperville Central found the welcome weapon in Anna Krupinski.

After not registering a single ace to that point, the Redhawks were back in business when Krupinski served four straight service winners.

The Krupinski service run forged a 14-14 second-set deadlock.

"All I had in my mind was to serve into the zones," Krupinski said. "I just swung and tried to put it in the right spots."

"That was a huge point for us," Naperville Central coach Brienne Isaacson said. "In the second set I thought we played a great game. We'll get them at another time at our place."

The remainder of the second set would be decided by the Huskies' superior play and cohesion around the net.

Aided by Naperville Central hitting errors, the Huskies captured four of the last five points to preclude the specter of a third game.

Naperville North never trailed in its first-set triumph.

Hall and Kara Oxenknecht were in force in the middle for the Huskies.

Hall finished with a team-best 7 kills and 3 blocks; Oxenknecht added 6 kills.

"We were mentally prepared for Central," Hall said. "We decided we were going to close out the match."

Naperville North libero Anna Jaworski played a masterful match with 19 assists and 10 digs.

Giorgia Cavalleri had the last of her match-high 9 kills for Naperville Central in forging the final tie at 21- all.