Benet crawls back in second set to secure victory over St. Charles North to claim sectional title

WEST AURORA – In the second set Nov. 7, the Benet girls volleyball players found themselves in a situation they hadn’t seen a whole lot.

Losing – and quite convincingly.

After beating St. Charles North in straight sets in each of their first two meetings and ahead a set in the Nov. 7 sectional final, the Redwings found themselves down 22-16 and on the verge of losing just their fourth set of the season.

Yet it didn’t seem to faze the top-ranked team in the state.

“When you have a team that’s mature and older and they’ve been in these situations before, you’ve got to continue to stick with it and keep playing,” Benet coach Brad Baker said. “You’ve got to throw the scoreboard away and try to get one point at a time.”

The Redwings did exactly that, crawling their way back to tie the game at 24-24 before securing a 28-26 victory in the second set.

The 25-18, 28-26 win gave Benet its third straight sectional title.

“Our mindset just didn’t change throughout the entire match, whether we’re down or up,” Baker said. “We’ve still got to make the same plays and do the same things. And we just had to finish the match there at the end and we did.”

Leading the way for the Redwings (38-1) was senior Brooklynne Brass, who finished with 13 kills.

Brass and senior Keira O’Donnell (seven kills) had key kills when St. Charles North was on set point in the second set.

“We just started worrying about our side a little bit more,” said Brass, a Maryland commit said. “In the huddle we realized that we were feeding off of their energy and not doing it on our own. So I felt like as soon as we started getting hyped off our own points and going all out, I think that’s when we switched and started going off.”

Brass, who transferred to Benet from Minooka before the season, said part of her success comes from the chemistry the team developed throughout the season.

“We trust in each other,” Brass said. “We know that the back row is going to get a good pass and the setter is going to get a good set so all our hitters are going to get good opportunities for kills. I just feel like us working together on offense is just how we play.”

Despite the loss, St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said she was proud of how the team fought during the match, especially after losing their first two matches against the Redwings earlier in the season.

“We’ve just gotten better and better each time that we played them and we have progressively gotten better as the season has gone on,” Hawkins said. “They had all the confidence in the world walking into the gym, even with everyone telling us that we couldn’t beat them. You never would have known that walking into the gym. They did not believe at all that they would lose.”

Junior Haley Burgdorf put the North Stars on her back, especially in the second set. The Penn State commit finished the match with 20 kills, including 15 in the second set.

“The kid is just amazing and she deserves all the accolades coming her way,” Hawkins said. “It uplifts all the girls, too, because they start feeding off the energy and the good that she’s doing.”

The North Stars finished the season with a 32-7 record. Hawkins said the loss hurts now but she knows that with the amount of returners she’ll have next season, it could be a sign of special things in the near future.

“We’re a young team and I think that’s awesome,” Hawkins said. “With Haley and Mia (McCall) leading them next season, it’s going to be amazing. We’re mourning right now because the group of seniors was unlike anything that I’ve had, but we’re very excited about the young kids in our program.”