Naperville North earns praise for victory

The reviews are in. Naperville North's opening night for the 2015 boys volleyball season was a smash hit.

On Wednesday the host Huskies controlled both games and defeated visiting Neuqua Valley 25-17, 25-14 in the first match of the season for both teams.

"This was a good match for the first game of the season," said Naperville North coach Nate Bornancin. "We have 11 guys back, nine seniors and we have great leadership. Some credit goes to our second team who had a great scrimmage at the end of practice to get us ready for Neuqua."

The Huskies are looking to bounce back from last year's 16-21 record, the first losing season in the program's history.

In Wednesday's first game the Huskies pulled ahead for good at 11-10 and pretty much controlled things the rest of the way.

"I liked our energy on the court," Bornancin said. "We were able to go on some runs. I think the guys started to understand momentum and how it can affect the game."

The second game was all Huskies. They jumped out to a 10-4 lead and were never threatened.

Naperville North's balanced attack was led by Jack Lenert with 5 kills, while Spencer Munroe, Frank Dore and Michael Jennings had 4 apiece.

"We've been working on spreading out our offense," Bornancin said. "Our stats tell us how well our setter Jack Rothmund was moving the ball around."

Munroe, a 6-foot-7 senior right side making only his second start, had 4 aces and 2 blocks to go with his kills.

"Spencer got the chance tonight and really did a great job," Bornancin said. "He's made some huge improvements and he's been working so hard in practice."

"We just came out super-fired-up for this game," Munroe said. "Our setter and outsides were really clicking and our defense was great tonight. This was an all-around good performance for the first match,"

Phil Olszewski led the team with 9 digs.

Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza was upset with his team's passing through most of the match.

"Our serve-receive was not good," Mendoza said. "The passing was terrible. We have such good hitters, but we can't take advantage of them if our setters are setting the ball from way out at the 10-foot line."

Mendoza credited Naperville North for its superior serve-receive and strong defense.

"It was a very sloppy game on our part," Mendoza said. "The few times we got a halfway decent pass, we had some really nice kills."

Austin Neace and Tim Wagner had 3 kills each for the Wildcats, while Brian McKissick had a pair of kills and 3 blocks. Neace and Wagner also led in digs with 5.