Metea Valley’s Kira Hutson has a short memory, at least when it comes to volleyball.
She may want to remember Tuesday night’s performance for a little while.
Hutson shook off a few early hitting errors and led all players with 14 kills to power the host Mustangs to a 25-22, 25-16 victory over Naperville North.
The win gave Metea its first DuPage Valley Conference championship since 2017 and extended its program record for victories to 32.
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“It means a lot because one of my goals when I came into high school was to make varsity and win state and break the record,” Hutson said. “It’s a lot of fun to be on a team that has the potential to do all those things.”
Hutson, a 6-foot-4 junior outside hitter who’s in her first varsity season, scored the first point of the match on a kill but barely missed on three ensuing attempts as the Mustangs (32-2, 9-0) fell behind 7-4.
But the Florida commit wasn’t deterred.
“I was taught when I first started volleyball just not to dwell on it because if you dwell on it, it’s only going to make things worse,” Hutson said. “So I just try to move past it and say, ‘I got the next one.'”
Hutson did get the next one — and the next and the next. She started Metea’s rally with a kill off an assist from senior setter Regan Holmer and did not miss again, landing her final 12 attempts.
“That’s what she does — she goes up there swinging,” Metea Valley coach Dave Macdonald said. “That’s the mentality we’ve always instilled.
“We don’t want to go up scared. We want to go up swinging and use our other shots when we need to, but go up there and be a force. She’s taken that mentality, and it’s been awesome.”
Holmer, a Grand Canyon beach volleyball commit, wasn’t worried about Hutson’s early misses either.
“I know Kira is a very driven player,” Holmer said. “She wants it really bad for herself and for our team, so I know she’s going to be a team player.
“She’s not going to let a few errors get in her head and affect the rest of her game because she wants to play for all of us, not just herself.”
Hutson was dominant but not the only threat unleashed by the Mustangs. Right-side hitter Maura Pilafas put away four kills, while outside Annabelle Troy and Holmer, who added 18 assists, each had three.
Holmer landed two of her kills during a 7-0 run on Alabama-bound libero Morgan Rank’s serve that opened a 16-10 lead in Game 2. Hutson had two kills during a 4-0 run on Troy’s serve that extended the cushion to 22-13.
“That first set we were pretty frustrated because we struggled through it,” Holmer said. “Going into that second set, we had a lot more drive, a lot more determination to improve.
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“We cleaned the little things up. Our defense played better and we were communicating more on offense.”
Naperville North (21-7, 7-2) played without injured senior outside Maggie Schlecht.
Senior libero Ashley Kushner replaced Schlecht in the front row and played well, but the Huskies committed errors on the final three points of Game 1. New Hampshire-bound middle Kara Oxenknecht paced the team with eight kills.
“I was proud of the way we competed,” Naperville North coach Jennifer Urban said. “When one player is out, it affects multiple positions and our other girls stepped in and played well as a team.
“It was our best passing night, but we made too many errors.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.