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West Aurora gets big win over Naperville North
| Corey R. Minkanic~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 13, 2011 9:38PM
Facing a do-or-die match at Naperville North Thursday to stay in the hunt for the DuPage Valley Conference volleyball title, West Aurora made a statement.
The Blackhawks want in.
They proved it by playing one of their best matches of the year, topping the Huskies 25-23, 25-16.
“This means like everything,” said senior outside hitter Kelsey Richmond, who chipped in five kills in West’s balanced attack.
“We wanted this so bad and all our hard work paid off. … We need to stay focused, cause it’s getting down to all the serious stuff.”
It certainly is.
The win lifts the Blackhawks to 21-8 overall and 10-2 in the league, while dropping the Huskies to 21-7 and 10-2. Both are a half game behind frontrunner Naperville Central, which has one loss.
West has matches next week at home Tuesday with West Chicago and Thursday at Glenbard East. North, meanwhile, plays Tuesday at Central and could throw the race into a two- or three-way tie with the win.
The visitors led by as many as four points early in the first set but when it came down to crunch time, the match went back-and-forth. It was tied at 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 before West took advantage of a Huskie serving error and Peyton McKenzie’s spike for a kill off a Leslie Martin set to take a 24-22 advantage.
Even then, the Huskies hung in, pulling within 24-23 on a block-for-kill by sophomore Angela Jurek.
Junior Lauren Carlini, though, closed it out with a well-placed dump kill, then pumped her fist.
“We came in and were determined to win this game and we held strong all the way through,” said Carlini, who led the way with seven kills, three blocks, nine digs and 11 assists in her dual role of setter/right side hitter.
It was a world of difference from North’s 25-18, 25-18 win at West earlier in the year when the Huskies took advantage of eight Blackhawk service errors.
“Our serve-receive had to be perfect and it was all day,” Carlini said, reciting the keys to the win. “I was very proud of our passers. And we knew we had to limit our errors on our side of the net and we did that and worked really well as a team.
“I feel like everyone contributed. Our hitters, almost every time was a kill. It was a very aggressive match and I liked that a lot.”
Balance was a key for West, which got six kills from Lauren Wilson, five from Kaitlyn Richter and four from McKenzie.
“I think our overall play was better,” said West coach Kari Nicholson. “We passed better and we were smarter with the ball and what we were gonna do with it. … They came out and went after it, and Naperville North is a fabulous team.”
West broke from a 9-9 tie in the second set with a 9-3 run that included back-to-back aces by Abigail Schaschwary. North coach Jennifer Urban called timeout staring at an 18-12 deficit.
A few moments later, Carlini unleashed her second ace of the match off her booming jump serve to make it 20-14.
“At that point, I was like, ‘OK, if we stay focused and hold strong on our serves, we’ve got this,’” said Carlini.
Madison Murphy finished with seven kills and two blocks and Sami Scroggins added four kills and four blocks for the Huskies.
“I thought West Aurora played a much better match the second time around,” said Urban. “They out-played us in ever facet of the match. We didn’t show up from point 1 and that was really disappointing.”
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