Swanson wears it well as Vernon Hills rolls

Maybe a change in uniform was the best thing that ever happened to David Swanson.

No, the Vernon Hills senior wasn’t traded but rather he moved from outside hitter to libero. And his switch to the different colored jersey seems to have pleased everyone in the Cougars’ program.

On Wednesday night in Libertyville, rivals Vernon Hills and Libertyville squared off in a North Suburban Conference clash. And frankly, it wasn’t close.

Vernon Hills (14-4, 3-1) watched the Wildcats score the first three points in Set 1 and then went off and hid. The Cougars led in all facets of this contest and registered a 25-14, 25-14 win.

When the Wildcats surged ahead to start, Swanson brought out his trusty jump serve and put the Wildcats on their heels.

“I’ve been working on that for two years,” Swanson said. “And it’s improved. We definitely get up for Libertyville. They are in our same district and our coach sure gets excited.”

Vernon Hills coach Chris Curry was excited to see his team play at a high level. In the case of Swanson, Curry noted that the senior was an outside hitter in the program, but with the introduction of new senior Mikey Kelly, there was a battle for that outside hitting position.

“It was a fierce battle,” Curry said. “We had a long talk about it and said let’s go play some defense. Now his mind is clear.”

Set 1 was close for awhile.

The Wildcats (11-8) were still in the match at 11-8. That was before Thomas Robinson went into serve. On blocks from Nick Garpow and Garrett Kubacki, and a kill from Kelly, the lead was suddenly 16-9.

Vernon Hills would never be threatened the rest of the way. This lopsided loss did not sit well with Libertyville coach Steve Rochon.

“Vernon Hills is a very talented team,” Rochon said. “But we didn’t do anything to make them uncomfortable. We were in brain lock tonight.”

Set 2 was even more one-sided. Again with Robinson serving, the Cougars surged out front. His first serve was an ace. Kelly and Garpow then added kills.

Vernon Hills looked at its best when Kelly went into serve with his team up 7-3. Robinson had a pair of fierce blocks. Kubacki jumped into the blocking flurry with one of his own. It was soon 13-4.

“Blocking was a major focus for us,” Curry said. “In our loss to Stevenson, we had one block kill while they had 15. Our kids played well tonight.”

There were 8 block kills for Vernon Hills in this romp.

Robinson led the way with 4 of those block kills. On attack, Kelly led a balanced attack with 6 kills. Martin Niemczewski had 5 kills. Also helping out were Kubacki (4 kills) and Robinson (4 kills).

Setter Justin Opitz notched 19 assists. Swanson led the defense with 7 digs.

Matt Tassler’s 5 kills led Libertyville.