It was a contest all about momentum.

One moment, Benet found itself with a sizable six-point lead in the second set, looking well on its way to its sixth consecutive sweep of St. Charles North.

The next, the Redwings returned to the bench as the North Star crowd went wild after forcing a third set.

And it was a feeling that the Redwings, especially senior middle Lynney Tarnow, could sense from the bench.

“The momentum had shifted, they definitely had it,” Tarnow said. “I think we realized that in the two-minute break between sets, just reset our brains and swiped all of the negatives and just focused on the positive stuff that we did and took it into the third set.”

So when the momentum shifted in their favor again in the third set, they jumped at it.

After going back and forth the majority of the final set, the Redwings managed to score six of the final eight points to get the three set (26-24, 23-25, 25-21) victory over the North Stars.

“We were just trying to stay pretty even keeled throughout the whole match,” Benet coach Brad Baker said. “You want to get excited and make the good plays. But you can’t get super low or super high, you just have to stay in an even medium and play each point as it is and focus on that next play.”

Recovering from the second set wasn’t the only time Benet (24-2) had to overcome adversity in the contest. Facing set point in the first set, the Redwings rallied off three straight points to tie, take the lead and win the set 26-24.

“We knew that this was going to be a tough game and that this would kind of set the tone for the rest of our season,” Tarnow said. “It’s October, it’s a new month. And that was a really good win to start off the new month.”

Tarnow, a Wisconsin commit, finished the game with 12 kills, which was tied for a team-high alongside senior and Maryland commit Brooklynne Brass. She also finished with a team-high three blocks alongside junior Sophia Youssef.

“We trust everybody that’s up at the net, that’s why they’re there,” Baker said. “It seems to be that a different night, different people step up. We’re just so lucky to have such an even keel team.”

The Redwings’ win put a damper on the North Stars’ night, which started with outside hitter Haley Burgdorf being recognized as an Under Armor All-American prior to the game.

And despite not getting the result she wanted on the court, Burgdorf felt it was still a very special night all around.

“I mean, the atmosphere was definitely exciting and very thrilling,” said Burgdorf, who finished with a team-high 11 kills. “When we play Benet, we want to beat them. And we had a student section for the first time in I don’t even know how long. So it was just fun getting to play in front of people.”

The loss was the second one the North Stars (22-3) have suffered at the hands of the Redwings this season, losing in straight sets on Aug. 30. Between the two matches, the North Stars had rallied off 17 straight victories without dropping a set.

So after losing the first set 26-24 and trailing 17-11 in the second after giving up eight straight points, coach Lindsey Hawkins wasn’t sure how the girls would respond.

“It was a tough one because we haven’t dropped a set in a very long time,” Hawkins said. “We’ve been challenged, but not to the point where every single point matters. We’ve been able to make errors and bounce back right away.”

But once they started scoring, they couldn’t stop. North ended up finishing the set on a 14-6 run, including eight of the last nine points of the set, which was finished off by an ace from senior Sidney Wright (10 kills, two aces, one block) for their first set off of the Redwings in their last six matchups.

“Especially behind the service line, they were really focused on just being aggressive and getting Benet out of its system, and I thought we did that very well,” Hawkins said. “We just need to improve on that a bit. Our motto is win the day, so we want to win and get better each day.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/my-suburban-life/2025/10/07/benet-outduels-st-charles-north-in-back-and-forth-three-set-match/