Benet uses 14-1 start to get 2-0 sweep over St. Charles North, extend win streak to 21 matches

LISLE — To say Benet has been the hottest volleyball team in the state of Illinois may be an understatement.

And even against another streaking team like St. Charles North, which was riding a 12-game winning streak, the Redwings kept the mindset that’s kept them out of the loss column.

Be ready for Point 1, and take the game from there.

Benet (21-0) used that mantra to take an early 14-1 lead at the start and controlled the game from there with a 25-6, 25-17 victory over St. Charles North (22-4) on Monday.

The win marked Benet’s 21st win in a row to start the season, of which 20 have been in the form of sweeps. The only set they’ve lost this season came Sept. 3 against Lincoln-Way East.

“They’re really talented and it’s a really competitive and mature group,” Benet coach Brad Baker said. “They played a lot of volleyball, so we’re really experienced. You add all that together and it puts together a team that looks like this.”

The Redwings established their game plan early and often on their way to a 14-1 advantage in the first set. Junior Lynney Tarnow led the charge during the streak. The Wisconsin-bound middle picked up three of her four kills in that stretch.

“We knew that they had a great record and it was going to be hard for us,” Tarnow said. “We just wanted to start really strong right away, push the pressure and aggressiveness on them immediately. And I think we did that.”

The Redwings wouldn’t let much else through on their end, securing a 25-6 victory in the first set.

The second set showed much of the same thing, with Benet establishing their outside hitters like Minooka transfer Brooklynne Bass, who finished the game with eight kills, and dominant serving from setter Audrey Asleson, who had four aces in the set, to lead them to a 25-17 win.

“We kept our energy up throughout the huddle in between sets, stayed locked in, and made sure not to let anything distract us from what our goal was, which was to take them in two sets,” Tarnow said. “Even though they got a few more the second set, we kept control the whole time.”

Despite going down early, the North Stars managed to put up some fight in the second set thanks to the play of junior Haley Burgdorf (five kills, two blocks) and senior Amber Czerniak (three kills).

“We were just not in the first set doing the things that we know we can do,” North coach Lindsey Hawkins said “What we do is what has gotten us the record that we have, which is great, but we didn’t do that. So that kind of threw us for a loop a little bit, and then second set we started going back to what we know how to do well. So that’s where a little bit of the fight came from, but still just not enough to overcome some of those runs.”

The loss was the North Stars’ first since a 2-1 defeat against Indiana’s Castle back on Sept. 14, and ended their 12-match win streak. Despite the loss, Hawkins said that she felt that the team played the best that they could, especially in the second set.

“It’s awesome knowing that like we’re making the most of what we have and what we’re given,” Hawkins said. “We were basically playing against the college team over there, so hats off to them. They are all very good players.”