Downers North Tops Downers South At Wheaton Classic

WHEATON – The girls volleyball teams for Downers Grove North and Downers Grove South faced off at the Wheaton Classic Saturday, and that match was a microcosm of each team's tournaments.

North wound up winning in three sets, 25-13, 22-25, 26-24. The Trojans wound up finishing 14^th at the 24-team tournament, while the Mustangs came away with 16^th place.

"It was mentally maddening watching the ups and downs," DGN coach Mark Wasik said. "Everybody was just so inconsistent. We'd see them play five great points and then have self-inflicting errors. No discredit to our opponents, but we brought a lot on ourselves."

Game 3 showed the wild swings. Downers North (7-6) jumped out to a 6-1 lead. But then the Mustangs (3-7) roared back to take a 17-12 lead and seemed in command of the match. But the Trojans hung around. South held a 24-20 lead and was poised to close the match out.

But an Alexa Loufman kill forced a side out, which was followed by five consecutive errors by the Mustangs to give North the 26-24 win.

"We had some upset girls," South coach Trisha Kurth said. "It's tough when they feel like the whole game was on them. We'll have thick skin from here on out. We have to play together as a team. It was there. There were glimmers of it. We're just young, so we make mistakes. They just have to find it somehow."

Downers Grove North had quite a scare earlier in the tournament on Thursday. The Trojans fell in three sets to Waubonsie Valley, 25-22, 16-25, 25-19, but lost their tallest player, 6-foot-2 junior Jessie Tulacka, to a concussion.

"We didn't know the severity of it at the time," Wasik said. "During the match, she didn't know where she was supposed to be in her rotation. It was kind of scary, so she's out for a week. It will make us that much better when she gets back."

Benet wound up taking third in the tournament, which was where the Redwings were seeded coming into the fray. Benet lost to eventual champion Marist in a hotly contested match, 25-22, 25-23, in the semifinals. The Redwings recovered to handle Glenbrook South, 25-13, 25-20, in the third-place match.