Vernon Hills adjusts to fourth-place finish at Warren

Was any team happy with their performance at the 24-team boys volleyball tourney completed Saturday afternoon at Warren High School?

Well, perhaps winner New Trier and third-place finisher, Loyola. However, the teams from Lake County, even fourth-place finisher Vernon Hills, weren't ecstatic over that fine finish.

The good news is no one really complained about the tourney itself.

"The tourney is great,'' said Vernon Hills coach Chris Curry. "Every team has to adjust to a different team. And adjust on the fly."

Now, about his team's performance on Saturday, Curry wasn't as cheerful. The Cougars fell twice, losing to champion New Trier (25-17, 25-20) and Loyola (25-20, 25-20). Vernon Hills trailed big against Loyola Academy but rallied in the second set to make a game out of it.

"We played poorly against Loyola,'' Curry said. "We didn't make good decisions. We need to worked on serving tough. We need more focus."

With wins Friday night over Providence and Hoffman Estates and another win over Oak Forest on Saturday morning, the Cougars (8-4) were in a good position.

Senior Dylan DeBoer led the Cougars with 40 kills. Setter Jared Bennett had a solid tourney with 45 assists, 32 kills and 17 digs. Middle blocker Lem Tucker had 18 kills and 12 blocks. Also helping out were Cory Levin (35 assists), Alon Polischuk (25 digs) and Johnny McDonald (22 digs, 9 kills).

Stevenson (5-3) made it to the silver flight title match but fell to a strong Prospect club. That was despite another strong performance from 6-foot-8 Grant Maleski.

"He's a force,'' said Stevenson coach Eric Goolish.

Maleski had 8 kills and Jesse Kesner added 6 kills in the 25-20, 25-23 loss to the Knights.

"We've won every close match until today,'' Goolish said.

Stevenson took down Highland Park 25-14, 25-20. Maleski had 11 kills in the two sets. Setter Eric Zalewski notched 14 assists. In a close match with NSC rival Warren, the Pats prevailed by 26-24 scores. Maleski had 10 kills and 5 blocks in this win. Kesner added 5 kills. Justin Leonard had 4 blocks.

"We still have a very young team,'' Goolish said. "But we are getting there."

Carmel won two matches on Saturday but dropped three close ones. A good example of this was a 28-26, 30-28 loss to Maine South.

"We can play with anyone,'' said Carmel coach Kevin Nylen. "It's not just the errors. It's the timing of the errors. We still have some growing up to do."

Kyle Zeman had 6 kills and lefty Michael May added 4 kills in the tough loss to Maine South. Highland Park also edged the Corsairs 25-20, 17-25, 25-22.

Nylen agreed the Warren Tournament is a good one.

"I love this tournament,'' he said. "It's well-run and you get good competition."

The host team, Warren, went home with one win. It came over Niles North, which went on to win the bronze division title. Warren also dropped some close matches. Mundelein edged the Devils 26-24, 25-27, 25-23.

"We lost some close matches,'' said Warren coach, Yun Chen. "We are still learning how to finish matches.''