Glenbard East clinches league championship

With visions of a title on their mind, power, quickness and height were on clear display for host Glenbard East boys volleyball on Tuesday night as they sealed the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division title by defeating South Elgin, 25-15, 25-19.

Capitalizing on 11 first-serve total points in the game, coupled with showcasing its depth on the bench, East (22-3, , 6-0) secured a win.

Glenbard East ran into a gritty Storm team going into the second game, but Rams senior Nick Symonds decided it was time to take over and help seal the victory, at one point blasting three straight kills.

"They weren't getting a block of me like other teams would, so I was just ripping it," he said.

His eye-opening outside power play was nothing out of the ordinary this season. He displayed an inherent ability to elevate his play to another level.

"At one point I told Drew (Hurlburt) to set me up and I'll get some kills," he said. "Nick is our No. 1 outside and he has done a phenomenal job all year long of getting us out of difficult situations."

Standout volleyball runs in the family. His brother Ben, playing libero, exhibited a strong defensive performance.

Though it appeared on the scoresheet as a relatively dominant victory, the Storm (6-21, 0-4), after dropping the first game handily, came out in the second game determined to gain momentum in the match. It had the game tied at 9 using impressive defensive stops and effective floor coverage to make the Rams shift their approach after having clearly established momentum from the beginning of the contest.

Of their charge going into the second game, coach Adam Plach pinpointed an area of his team's play that he hopes it can build on.

"We've been able to get ourselves in system a little better, more out of our serve-receive and we have some hitters taking some better swings," the coach said.

Despite having left the DuPage Valley Conference last year Glenbard East has made the transition look seamless.

"We see a lot of the teams in tournaments. That's the neat thing about volleyball, you play more matches outside of your conference than in it, so we've seen a lot of Upstate Eight teams, and at the end of the day it's just volleyball," said Rams coach Marci Maier, who started the program 17 years ago and has been coach ever since.

The Rams host St. Charles North on Thursday, while South Elgin travels to Metea Valley on the same day.