Benet beats the best
The Benet boys volleyball team had a lot to prove at the invitational it hosted this weekend, and the Redwings proved a lot by winning the title and showing that they belong with this year's state title contenders.
Benet established itself as a viable challenger in the postseason Saturday with successive victories over two of the top teams, Glenbard West and Naperville Central, to win the Benet Invitational for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 2006.
"I'm really proud of the way we played," said Benet coach Amy Van Eekeren. "Everyone contributed. This championship goes a long way to building our confidence. This is what we wanted when we started the tournament. We wanted to have the best teams in here to get ready for the playoffs."
To win the title match, the Redwings (22-6) had to overcome the high-flying Redhawks (21-7) 15-25, 25-18, 25-21 with tournament MVP 6-foot-7 Mark Schuessler leading the way for Benet with 18 kills and 3 blocks. He had 70 kills for the tournament.
"Schuessler is fantastic," said teammate Scott Kleiser, who also made the all-tournament team. "No one can block him. He's one of the best hitters there is."
Benet lost to Naperville Central in pool play the night before, and the Redwings were also beaten by the Redhawks at the Brother Rice tournament a week ago.
"Beating Glenbard West was big," Schuessler said. "They're a huge rival. By winning the semifinal match against them we got the confidence we needed going into the finals. We wanted to make up for the two losses to Naperville Central."
"We were fired up," said Kleiser, who had 9 kills and 6 blocks in the finals. "We had a lot of motivation to come out on top. We played the best we ever have against the best team, Glenbard West."
The Redwings won the semifinal match over the Hilltoppers 25-22, 25-21.
Naperville Central advanced to the finals by knocking off Oswego 25-16, 25-22.
And they looked as if they would make short work of the Redwings by winning the first game 25-15.
But then everything came together for Benet. The Redwings outplayed the Redhawks in Games 2 and 3 for the title.
"In the finals we stayed together as a team," Kleiser said. "When we messed up in that first set we didn't worry about it. We just bounded back."
For Benet, Logan Ladowski had 19 digs and Alex Yates added 5 kills. Setters Ben Mazza and Jackson Van Eeekeren dished out 19 and 13 assists, respectively.
Versatile Josh Martinez at 5-foot-9 was singled out for praise by his coach for his great work filling in at middle hitter.
"The things that got us to the finals are the things that broke down in the match against Benet," said Naperville Central coach Roger Strausburger. "Until the finals I was pleased about our blocking, our floor defense and our consistency. But that was everything that worked against us in the finals. We made a ton of errors and we couldn't block a ball at the net."
Jack Burton led the Redhawks with 12 kills in the finals, and Matt Skowronski had 8 kills and a pair of blocks. Setter Kevin Prazak had 23 assists.
Glenbard West defeated Oswego 25-21, 25-23 in the third-place match. Neuqua Valley finished fifth followed by Plainfield Central, St. Francis and Waubonsie Valley.
In addition to Schuessler and Kleiser, the all-tournament team included Naperville Central's Burton and Tyler Stefani, along with Paulie Bischoff and Jackson Nagle of Glenbard West, Tim Pisarski of St. Francis, Mike Romano of Neuqua Valley, Andrew Salmon of Waubonsie Valley, Shane Bara and Zach Aceret of Oswego and Noah Randall of Plainfield Central.