St. Viator again measures up against South Elgin
For the second time in less than a week, the St. Viator boys volleyball team got the better of South Elgin.
The Lions bested the visiting Storm 25-15, 25-20 in a nonconference matchup Wednesday in Arlington Heights just days after defeating them at last weekend’s Rolling Meadows tournament.
In spite of the recent tourney success, Viator senior setter Brennan Harrington said his team wasn’t taking anything for granted.
“We weren’t taking them lightly, “said Harrington. “They’re a good team, and we knew they have a great outside hitter (Nate Marotta) that we had to stop.”
Harrington led the Viator victory with 23 assists on 51-of-52 setting, while junior Marotta swatted 8 kills for the Storm.
“Our serve receive just wasn’t there tonight,” said Marotta. “That led to some poor sets and some poor hits.
“We’ve been playing very well lately, but this wasn’t our best performance.”
It was at the service line where St. Viator took control early. Senior Orrin Wolf had two consecutive aces as the Lions (10-4) ran out to an early 13-4 lead in the first set.
South Elgin (9-6) couldn’t get any closer than 5 points thereafter as senior outside Austin Ziakas closed out the set with an ace.
“We came out flat,” said South Elgin coach Adam Plach. “Why I can’t say, but volleyball is an emotional game, and it’s all about momentum. We just weren’t in synch.”
St. Viator ran to a big lead again in set two, but South Elgin wasn’t about to go away quietly.
The Storm trailed by 9 points before an 9-2 run brought them to within 21-19. Then Wolf stepped up with a clutch kill for the Lions to stem the tide.
Ziakas finished the match the way he ended the first set — with an ace, this one hitting to top of net and falling untouched on the Storm side of the court.
“We’ve been consistent,” said St. Viator coach Chris Boylan. “We’ve been focusing on cutting down on our errors.”
Senior setter Jake Dinneen had 15 assists for South Elgin, while Wolf (8 kills) and Ziakas (7 kills) led the attack for the victorious Lions.
“The kids,” added Boylan, “have been playing very smart volleyball lately. They’re not making many mistakes.”