Huskies Volleyball Rallies For Dramatic Win

WHEATON – The season for Naperville North's girls volleyball team is only nine matches old, but one trend has quickly emerged.

The Huskies continue to fight back from difficult situations to come up with wins. And they were at it again Tuesday at Wheaton Warrenville South.

North rallied for a dramatic 25-23, 13-25, 28-26 DuPage Valley Conference win to remain unbeaten in DVC play at 3-0 in the young season.

"We have done that this year," North coach Jennifer Urban said. "We are still very inconsistent at times this year, but we're finding ways to win. We're happy with that. This is a group that has great passion and they won't go down without a fight."

The Huskies (6-3 overall) bounced back from a dreadful second game to keep Game 3 tight to the finish. The game was nip-and-tuck throughout, and the Tigers (7-3, 2-2) actually served with match point on the line twice. The first time, North sophomore Corinne Gajcak recorded a kill to keep the match alive. The second time was an error from WWS that made it 25-25.

North then served with match point, only to see Kate Phalen put down a kill to keep the Tigers in the match. But another Gajcak kill followed by an Ashley Crawford kill finally ended the match.

"I think they definitely had more energy than us (in the second game), and that definitely brought us down more than it should have," Gajcak said. "We basically felt that we had to get it back in the third game, and we obviously did."

Wheaton South jumped out to a 16-11 lead in Game 1, but the Huskies took advantage of numerous Tigers' errors to roar back for a 25-23 win. A kill from Sami Scroggins completed the game.

Then in the second, WWS completely turned the momentum over, dominating wire-to-wire. The Tigers built a 20-9 lead and cruised to a 25-13 win.

"We won the first game still making a lot of errors on our side, but we made enough plays to win by two," Urban said. "We came out really flat in the second game. We were able to bounce back and start fresh with a new game. I was most pleased with that."

Gajcak and Crawford led the attack for the Huskies. Gajcak had 12 kills and 13 digs and Crawford added nine kills. Jessie Fiala was strong on the back line with 20 digs and Sarah Romberg handed out 28 assists in the win.