Benet Volleyball Season Ends In Sectional Final

ROMEOVILLE – After winning sectional titles the past two seasons, including its 2008 runner-up finish at state, Benet's volleyball team has lofty goals.

The top-seeded Redwings reached the sectional final for the fourth straight season, but Thursday their season came to a sudden stop at the hands of Hinsdale South.

The Hornets, in a thrilling 29-31, 28-26, 30-28 barnburner of a Class 4A Romeoville Sectional final, thwarted a third consecutive sectional crown. Benet finishes the season with a 32-7 record.

"The kids fought and never gave up," Benet coach Brad Baker said. "Any other team could have just folded and they didn't. We were behind and battling every game. We were fighting ourselves the whole match. The girls never gave up."

Even in the first set, in which the Redwings eventually won, Benet had to fend off four game points for the win. They were poised to take it after a back-row kill from Lara Ontko (team-high 13 kills) earned a sideout and left Benet with game point, up 25-24. But it went back-and-forth until the Redwings finally outlasted Hinsdale South (33-6) to take the early advantage.

Benet rolled that momentum to a 4-1 lead early in the second game before errors and poor serving started to persist yet again. It was a common theme for the Redwings all night long. By the time No. 3 seed Hinsdale South had built a 19-12 lead in the second, nine of the Hornets' points came from Benet errors, with serve receive being the main culprit.

"Our first-ball contact was not good tonight, without a doubt," Baker said. "Our serving and serve receive were not good. Give credit to the kids for still being there. Realistically, if they're not fighting the way that they did on offense and defense, this is a blowout. We're not even in this match because of our errors."

That fire manifested itself late in the second. Consecutive kills from Alyson Farm, Meghan Haggerty and Jenna Jendryk put Benet in position to win the match, up 25-24 with the serve. But a net serve came into play to give the Hornets the serve back and, fittingly, with the way the match unfolded, an error ended the second with Hinsdale South able to force a third and deciding set.

Benet had trouble getting anything going early in the third, receiving some help from some Hornets errors for a change to stay in it. The Redwings were down 13-8, despite having only a Jendryk ace and two kills from setter Kaitlyn King to show on the offensive end.

Despite Hinsdale South's Jessica Brezwyn, Morgan Howard and Danielle Romeo continually pounding down kills, however, Benet was again able to fight back. Haggerty got hot with two kills and a block to help cut the lead to 19-17.

"I think what we showed is that we dug ourselves into holes, but in the end, we fought back as best we could and just came up short," King said. "When we're down, we fight like there's no tomorrow."

When Ontko pounded out a kill to give Benet a 22-21 lead and the serve back, it looked like Benet was destined to head to Normal West for the supersectional Saturday. But Hinsdale South received some more Benet errors and outlasted the Redwings to advance.

"Anytime you put that much time and effort in, it hurts when it's over," Baker said. "You give 100 percent and you put yourself out there, you're going to be emotional."