BLOOMINGTON - The club volleyball season and the high school season are very different. A loud crowd at the Robert Frank Sports Complex illustrated one such difference Thursday night as No. 25 nationally ranked Bloomington High School downed Normal West, 25-18, 25-14.

"During club season, you don't have all the fans to cheer you on," said Georgia Tech recruit Ashley Beyer after causing a stir with 13 kills and eight digs for BHS.

The well-fought match managed the rare feat of sending both coaches home happy.

"For the most part that first game, we hung right with them," said Normal West coach Maggie Nelson, whose team was playing its opener. "Our passing and defense were solid."

Offense was another matter.

The Wildcats' kill leader, 6-foot-1 Gardner-Webb recruit Laura Wilcox, only had four while setter Allyson Keith only had eight assists.

"Our offense had a couple breakdowns and against Bloomington, you can't afford that," Nelson said. "I think we played them closer than the score showed."

The score in the first game was 20-17 before BHS closed things out with a 5-1 run ending on a Beyer kill.

"They did a lot of good things that first game," said BHS coach Joe Sanders of the Wildcats.

The second game wasn't as close as the Purple Raiders tallied six of their nine aces against six service errors. Lauren Seyller had three aces among her nine service points.

"They have quite a few aggressive jump float servers and that can throw off an offense," Nelson said. "We didn't put it all together at the same time. We'd have a really good play in the back row and didn't produce at the net or vice versa."

Kristin Stauter, an Illinois State recruit, finished with three kills on six dump attempts to go with 18 assists and six digs.

"It (going for kills) is something we've been talking about her working on because she's playing in the middle for us a couple rotations and if they don't go with her, it's her job to see it and use it," Sanders said.

Kasey Heckelman, a 6-foot-2 Division I prospect, had six kills and one block for BHS, which improved to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big 12 Conference. Allison Kirk added six digs.

Wilcox and Allison Stover each had three blocks for West, which received 13 digs from Kelsey Detweiler.