Waubonsie Dominates Neuqua in Volleyball Showdown

Waubonsie Valley left no doubt this season about girls volleyball supremacy in the Upstate Eight Conference.

Tuesday night in Naperville, the Warriors completed a flawless run in both the Valley division and their crossover matches by spoiling Senior Night at Neuqua Valley with a straight-games 25-21, 25-16 triumph over the Wildcats.

"It's the first time we've won the conference outright since I've been here," Waubonsie coach Kristen Stuart said.

Waubonsie shared the title with St. Charles East last year.

Senior Martha Stewart was brilliant all evening for the visiting Warriors. The three-year varsity member led both sides with 11 kills.

Stewart operated with near impunity from the back and front rows to spearhead the Waubonsie Valley attack.

Neuqua Valley scored the opening point of the first game; the Wildcats would have only one other lead, 2-1 in the second game, the entire match.

"In past years we have been too nervous (against Neuqua)," Stewart said of the intra-district showdown between the undefeated division leaders. "We were just so excited. The second game was more of our match."

Ally Simmons' three-point service run, including an ace, provided the Warriors (24-10, 7-0) with an early 4-1 cushion, forcing Neuqua  (20-10, 6-1) to play catch-up the remainder of the tight first game.

Brigid Campbell had a block-kill to forge the second tie of the opening game for Neuqua, but Waubonsie Valley would score the next two points.

The Wildcats would slice their deficit to one point on six separate occasions in ensuing play, but Waubonsie Valley was able to methodically increase its advantage.

Waubonsie capitalized on a Neuqua serving error, a Simmons kill and another serve not returned to take its largest first-game lead at 20-16.

Neuqua rallied once again to trim the Warriors' lead to one, 22-21, but Waubonsie junior Lisa Studnicka followed consecutive Neuqua hitting errors with one of her seven kills to close out the first game.

"We knew what we had to do," Simmons said. "Our energy level was so much better than theirs."

In the second game, Stewart and Studnicka had back-to-back kills to break the last of four early ties in initiating a process that became clearly evident.

Waubonsie Valley simply did not let Neuqua have any extended service runs.

"I think that's important that we sideout early," Stuart said. "We worked on serve-receive for about an hour (on Monday)."

"The difference (in the match) was that Waubonsie was getting three and four points at a time," Neuqua coach Kelly Simon said. "They definitely deserved to win the match based on performance. It was a lack of execution on our part."

Meagan Mooney, who had 18 assists to lead both teams, ended the match for Waubonsie with a kill.

Jill Galovic led the Warriors' defense with 10 digs.

Neuqua was led by Callie Huebener (seven kills), Campbell (six kills) and Stacy Cesario (11 assists, five digs).