Girls volleyball: Benet rallies to win Scholastic Cup

For only the third time this season, Benet Academy needed three sets to win a match.

After dropping the first contest of the St. Charles East Scholastic Cup Championship Match to Normal West, Benet Academy rallied to win the last two to take home the overall first-place trophy Saturday.

After jumping out to a 15-7 lead, Normal West hung on to edge Benet Academy, 26-24 in the first set. Trailing only twice early in the second set, the Redwings won, 25-17. Benet clinched the championship with a 15-9 win in the third set.

Geneva (19-7) finished third in the Silver Division. The Vikings downed Minooka (14-12) 25-21, 19-25, 18-16 in the third-place match.

Waubonsie Valley (12-13) edged Naperville North 14-12), 25-23, 25-20 to capture the Bronze Division trophy.

Great Lake Volleyball Center in Aurora hosted the tournament.

In the title match, Normal West (29-3) extended its lead to 15-7 on Benet libero Aniya Williams' dig attempt. The junior prevented the ball from hitting the ground, but the ball went out of bounds.

The Redwings mounted a comeback, scoring the next point on a Gabby Stasys kill. Benet (24-2) tied the match, 20-20, on a Wildcats hitting error. The Redwings took the lead and were one away from match point, 24-22, with a Sophia Chinetti spike.

Momentum swung back to Normal West. A service return error tied the contest at 24. The Wildcats scored the next two points to close out the set.

"We're not a perfect team. We all make errors. In that first set, it kind of got away from us. But we fought because we were down by a lot," said Williams. "We gave it all that we had and then we came back in the next two and just did what we needed to do."

The beginning of the second set featured four ties and three lead changes. Benet took the lead for good at 7-6 and pulled away.

"Our energy definitely brought it home to us in the second set," said sophomore Lynney Tranow. "I think our pace really helped us. The blocking was definitely super great. We were closing in on them well. We were able to transition off that and be there to get up and attack."

The highlight of the third set was a Morgan Asleson dig. The junior's save bounced back onto Normal West's side and then out of bounds. The point put Benet Academy ahead 3-2 and the Redwings led for the rest of the set.

"We were just off to kind of a fast start and things were just going our way. I think just some of our errors caught up to us a little bit, things like missed serves and hitting errors. You just can't give a good team too many of those," said Normal West coach Kelsey Mueller. "We had a couple of those in the first set, but it didn't really make that much of a difference. In the second set, they played a little bit cleaner, so we had to clean up our side as well."

Geneva rebounded from a second set defeat to take third place.

"It was competitive on both ends. Minooka is a good team. I was telling my team what we need to take from this game is that they didn't give up. They go after every ball - relentless defense," Geneva coach Lauren Kosecki said. "I think that's something we can improve on. But near the end, we didn't give up and that's what ended the game."

Libero Reilly Day agreed her team became more determined as the match went on.

"We really picked it up at the end. Everyone gave all their effort. We really worked together as a team, and we had good energy," the senior said. "Even after losing the second set pretty bad, we didn't give up."