Redhawks Volleyball Topples North Again

Naperville Central's girls volleyball team has been fighting the trend of allowing teams to come back when it has built a nice lead.

The Redhawks were in that mode again Tuesday in the second DuPage Valley Conference matchup of the season with cross-town rival Naperville North, and they were able to overcome it.

Central led 8-2 and 21-13 in the third set against the Huskies and wound up hanging on for a 25-23, 23-25, 25-21 win.

"That tends to happen with us a lot," Central senior Katie Battle said. "We go up by a lot, and we lose some and we go back up. We're working on trying to stay consistent. I think we've gotten a lot better at that this season."

The first two sets were extremely tight, with each team taking one to force a decisive third game. Central (14-13 overall, 8-3 DVC) jumped out quickly in the third to take an 8-2 lead behind a diverse attack. Chloe Lupina had two kills, Sara Kinney had a block and a kill, Veronica Gall and Sammy Condon each had kills and Carly Wesoloski served an ace in the run.

"I thought Central played a really good third game," North coach Jennifer Urban said. "They played good, team volleyball. Everybody contributed in that game. We needed a few more people to step up for us tonight to be in that position."

North (14-13, 7-4) managed to come back and tie the score at 10-10, but the Huskies were never able to wrestle away the lead. The Redhawks' impressive block helped build the lead back up to 21-13, but North was able to get within 24-20 before Central was able to put the finishing touches on the win.

"We got down by a few in the third game and came back and went down again," Urban said. "When you're down by that much at the end of the match, it's a lot harder to come back and recover."

Central coach Brie Isaacson was happy that her team did build the lead up twice in the third game so that it was  able to withstand North's runs.

"We were just trying to play right in the middle, not too high, not too low, just play with confidence," Isaacson said. "I think we played with confidence because we were up those points. When they came back, we were able to overcome it. As a coach, we try to eliminate those lulls, but Naperville North is a great team. At no point did I think the match was over, not until it said 25."

The Redhawks swept the two matches against their rivals for the regular season, winning both in three sets.

"We were hoping to win it in two today, but it didn't work out," Battle said. "But we never let down and we came out in the third game having the mentality that we were going to win. We like to come in and beat North."