Sophomore Sydney Dodd, Bolingbrook won’t be denied, beat Yorkville for third time to win regional title

AURORA – Bolingbrook’s Sydney Dodd is listed at 5-foot-7 and a sophomore.

Her game fits neither of those descriptions.

Dodd, Bolingbrook’s leading scorer and rebounder in her first varsity season, plays with a relentless aggression that belies her age. She attacks the basket, but with poise, and can run the floor like few posts.

“That’s why she’s been our leader all season,” Bolingbrook coach Chris Smith said. “That relentlessness, that aggression – you can’t teach that."

Dodd wasn’t to be denied Friday.

She scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, and also grabbed nine rebounds and added six steals.

Bolingbrook broke open its game with Yorkville in the second quarter and went on to beat the Foxes for the third time this season, 58-34, in the Class 4A Metea Valley Regional final.

Kennedy Williams added 16 points and seven rebounds and Skylar Wakefield and Airyel Jackson eight points apiece for Bolingbrook (21-10), which won its 22nd straight regional title to advance to play Waubonsie Valley on the Raiders' home floor Tuesday.

Dodd is not particularly tall for a player who scores almost exclusively at the rim, but she said she compensates with her speed.

On a few occasions she outran her opponent for scores in transition, but she also mixed it up in traffic and made 9 of her 11 shots.

“Being 5-7 and playing a forward, it’s hard – I have a size disadvantage so I like to use my speed," Dodd said. “It’s very aggressive down in the paint. I try to use my speed because usually big girls aren’t as fast. Anything to my advantage.”

Hard to believe, but Dodd didn’t see any varsity time last year.

She played for a Bolingbrook JV team that lost just one game. Now she’s one of three sophomore starters for a Raiders' team with 11 new players this year.

“The funny part is, Sydney is very underrated,” Smith said. “Nobody talks about her. It is what it is. She lets her play do the talking.”

And Dodd hardly seemed overwhelmed by the moment Friday.

“Not really,” she said with a smile. “I want to get that money.”

Dodd scored eight of Bolingbrook’s 12 points in the first quarter, but Yorkville played it to a 12-12 standstill.

The Raiders, though, found another gear at both ends, and led 33-20 by halftime.

“We knew after playing them twice what we were capable of doing,” Smith said. “Applying pressure, do what we do. I felt like we could have that opportunity.”

“They reached another level,” Yorkville coach Kim Wensits said. “And we couldn’t get a shot to fall.”

Indeed, the Foxes were only guilty of a modest 17 turnovers, and Bolingbrook – unlike the previous two meetings – didn’t feed off of them.

Scoring, though, was a chore, as it was Yorkville’s fewest points in a game since November. Brooke Spychalski scored nine points and Madi Spychalski eight.

“Felt like we got a little stagnant. It was almost like we looked a little shell-shocked, which I’m a little surprised by,” Wensits said “We had seen them twice before, with a very veteran group.”

Bolingbrook, meanwhile, made a living scoring near the basket and nearly doubled Yorkville on the boards.

Williams, a springy 5-foot-11 junior, got it going with 12 of her 16 points in the second quarter, her jumper in the lane sending Bolingbrook into halftime ahead 13.

“Kennedy is a difference-maker,” Smith said. “When Kennedy plays to her capability and ball handling she’s a difference-maker.”

The stakes for the Raiders rise next week against 29-1 Waubonsie Valley, fourth in Class 4A last year.

“That will be tough,” Smith said. “Our kids are going to have to grow up, and they’re going to have to grow up quick.”

Wensits, meanwhile, felt bittersweet to have to say good-bye to this senior group. The Spychalski twins and Lainey Gussman, three-year varsity players, led Yorkville to 60 total wins and three regional finals.

“That is what is so hard to process and swallow right now, is that they have worked so hard and been in these games. I really thought this was it, their moment,” Wensits said.

“Even though they are not going to get the sticker on the wall for a championship they have been a fun group to coach. Love the effort and what they’ve done to put the program back where it is.”