Road warriors: Marist rolls by Benet

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At this rate, Marist may never want to go home.

The No. 5-ranked RedHawks got five kills and four aces from 6-foot-9 senior Joe Smalzer and five kills and a block each from seniors Evan Bruton and Pat Feltman to defeat Benet 25-16, 25-22 Tuesday in Lisle.

Marist’s third straight road win, coming on the heels of victories last week over St. Rita and Maine South, was also the East Suburban Catholic Conference opener for both teams.

“We’re on a little bit of a roll now,” said Marist’s sophomore setter Garrett Dempsey, who dished out 18 assists before giving way to senior Ryan Thomas late in Game 2 with the RedHawks leading 17-12.

“We’re just working hard everyday in practice trying to get better,” Dempsey said.

Marist (10-3) broke a 15-15 tie in Game 1 behind Feltman, who had three kills and a block to fuel a game-ending 10-1 run. In Game 2, Marist led 13-12 when six Benet errors helped the visitors grab a 20-14 lead.

But the Redwings (11-8) fought back, pulling within 24-22 on a kill by freshman Luke Ladowski (three kills).

“They served aggressively and very consistently,” Benet coach Amy Van Eekeren said. “Obviously, they were trying to serve at my freshman. My two leftsides (Jona Cyvas and Steve Garvin) have injuries, but Ladowski is doing a nice job.”

Marist closed out the match when a Benet kill attempt went long on game point.

“(Benet) beat us last year at our place, so we wanted to come in here and make a statement,” Marist coach Bob St. Leger said. “This was a good one to get. The conference is better than last year. We got a win. It wasn’t pretty, but we got it.”

Kevin Massura led Benet with nine kills and Ben Steele had 14 assists.

"Too many errors," Van Eekeren said. "We've been working on serving aggressively. There's going to be some errors when you do that. But we clearly had too many."