Waubonsie Valley earns revenge with sweep of Hinsdale Central

Down 18-11 in Game 2, Waubonsie Valley coach Kristen Didier admitted that there was the temptation to start wondering about a Game 3 lineup.

“You start thinking that it’s possible (to rally and win), but it’s tough,” she said. “I think the girls just made the turn at the right time.”

The Warriors closed Game 2 on a 14-5 run to avenge last week’s 25-23, 27-25 loss to Hinsdale Central at the Benet Invite with a 25-23, 25-23 victory Thursday in Hinsdale.

Five-toot-10 junior outside hitter Taylor Dunwell capped the rally, tooling her sixth kill of the match off a double block as Waubonsie Valley improved to 6-2.

“The difference this time was that we had a lot more energy to push through this final game,” Dunwell said. “Last week, we almost had them on every play, but we’d lose points on our own mistakes. This game we worked really hard to improve our mistakes and do what we know how to do.”

Hinsdale Central (5-3) led 17-15 in Game 1, but surrendered a 9-3 run before pulling within 24-23 on a kill by Meg Irvin, an ace by Brooke Istvan and a Waubonsie hitting error. But Hinsdale Central served long down 24-23 to hand Waubonsie the first game.

The Red Devils then built a seemingly insurmountable 18-11 lead in Game 2 and still led 21-15 on an Istvan dump, but the Warriors steadily closed the gap and eventually took their first lead since 3-2 at 22-21 on a Dunwell kill.

Lauren Fuller got the Red Devils within 24-23 with her eighth kill of the match, but Dunwell made sure the match would not see a third game.

“I thought I did OK, but it was really the whole team that came together for the win,” Dunwell said. “It was all of us equally. Our energy as a whole was really up. That helped us flow through the match like we should.”

Brooke Burling added six kills, Becky Breuer and Caroline Cordes both had five kills and Becca Fortsch added 10 assists and two aces for Waubonsie Valley.

Irvin added six kills and two blocks for Hinsdale Central, which also got four kills by Regan Serwat and 20 assists by Istvan.

“We fell off the bus today,” Hinsdale Central coach Kelly Moran said. “All around, from point one of Game 1 until the last points of Game 2, we never really got control of it. That was the story of Benet, last night (against St. Charles East) and tonight.

“We’re pretty much in a rut and we’re trying to work through it. It’s taking a lot longer than we’d like to let happen.”