Young Redhawks Come of Age Over WWS

With a varsity roster that features as many sophomores as seniors (five), Naperville Central girls volleyball coach Brie Isaacson was willing to try just about anything to find the right mix.

In Wednesday's 20-25, 25-13, 25-23 DuPage Valley Conference win over Wheaton Warrenville South, the tinkering consisted of moving senior Katie Battle from defense to the left side up front and inserting freshman Ivy Lei as the No. 2 setter.

Both moves worked brilliantly as the Redhawks improved to 3-5 overall and 1-1 in the DVC, bouncing back from a rough DVC opener at West Aurora Tuesday. Battle led Central eight kills, eight digs and four blocks, while Lei contributed five assists and four aces.

"We tried a little bit of everything tonight, but at one point, we had three sophomores on the court, one freshman and two seniors," Isaacson said. "We've had a hard time establishing any kind of rhythm."

The Redhawks hung around in the first game, but the more-experienced Tigers managed a 25-20 win. That didn't bother Isaacson, however.

"Despite losing the first game, I thought we played hard," Isaacson said. "So, I told the girls that I just wanted them to do the same thing in the second game, and they did. They built on their own confidence and it just kept escalating."

Central jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the second game and cruised to a 25-13 win. In the final 12-5 stretch, sophomore Alysia Baznik had two of her five kills in the match and senior Chloe Lupina added a kill and an ace.

"We were talking, yelling across the court, taking advantage of anything we could," Battle said. "We always try to feed off of our energy. We try to be an energetic team all the time. Talking always helps."

The Redhawks trailed only once, 8-7, in the third set, but never led by more than three (17-14) before clinging to the win. Lei's ace that hugged the tape and tricked over in bounds made it 21-19 and seemed to deflate the Tigers. They never tied or led again.

"We decided that we were going to bring it all together and do everything that we were doing in practice to get a win," Battle said.

Isaacson knows there is a long way to go this season, but after a shaky start, this is the kind of performance her team needed.

"It's the best-played match, win or lose, we've had all year," Isaacson said. "If we would have lost that match, I would have felt equally as good as I do right now."