Strong serving carries Aurora Central

Updated: October 24, 2011 9:06PM

There was no target painted on the Westmont gym floor, but if there had been Aurora Central senior Ashley Wilk would have been nailing bullseye after bullseye Monday.

The fourth-seeded Chargers found their service game to be too much for the fifth-seeded Sentinels to handle, winning easily 25-13, 25-10 at the IHSA Class 2A Westmont Regional to move on to Wednesday’s semifinal against No. 1 Timothy Christian.

“She’s got a nice serve and I think even started out a little stiff,” Aurora Central coach Jeanne Czipri said of Wilk. “I think everyone stepped up and got their aces, everybody got their digs, everybody got their kills. Everybody scored at least a point legitimately tonight, which is a compliment to my team right now.”

The Chargers (15-19) recorded seven kills as a team — four by Wilk — and kept the Sentinels (21-10-1) out of system all night with their serving accuracy. Aurora Central committed just four service errors in two games.

“My jump serve was working today,” said Wilk, who also tallied eight digs. “It’s one of my strengths so I try to work with it.”

The outside hitter riddled the Westmont back line with serves with a huge amount of spin, never allowing easy digs.

“It depends on the ball actually,” Wilk said. “This ball was really light. When you hit it, it floats and then drops.”

Westmont got four kills from junior Susan Sternard, but played a poor service game and failed to adjust defensively to the Chargers’ serves.

“When we served aggressive they were out of system,” Sentinels coach Jennifer Gliwa-Bell said. “We just did not get our job done in terms of serving.”

Aurora Central ran off a 10-2 run in Game 1 behind just one service mistake and executed a 10-0 run to take Game 2.

Chargers junior Sam Chmielewski came off the bench to record six kills, while senior Kendall Adams had six kills, two digs and two aces.

Senior setter Jill Huseman had six digs and nine assists for ACC, which feels prepared to face the Trojans having endured a tough SCC Blue schedule.

“We’ve been playing some of the best teams in the state,” Wilk said. “We’re prepared to play Timothy Christian.”

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