Boys volleyball: South Elgin wins U-46 tournament

The second annual U-46 boys volleyball tournament at Streamwood on Saturday was a chance for an early season assessment for several local teams.

At least 3 of them came away feeling rather positive, but none more than South Elgin. The Storm cruised to a first place finish winning all 5 matches of the round robin in 2 games.

The Storm's toughest challenge came in their second match as they overcame a deficit late in Game 1 to knock off Bartlett 25-22, 25-15. They followed up with wins over Elgin (25-16, 25-16), St. Edward (25-7, 25-15), and Streamwood (25-17, 25-14). South Elgin had opened the tournament with a 25-15, 25-10 win over Larkin.

"I didn't know quite what expect from this team coming into the season because we have a lot of new players," South Elgin coach Adam Plach said. "But I like what I see so far. I knew we had a few guys coming back that were going to contribute a lot, but I've been really impressed with our group of juniors. They have really come together quickly. I thought we did a nice job today of staying in our plays and getting swings consistently."

One of the junior standouts has been Tyler Turner, who led the Storm with 28 kills on the day. He also had 7 aces.

"It's really amazing how quickly we have grown and come together as a team," Turner said. "Team chemistry is the most important thing. I spend a lot of time studying my teammates, so I can learn what they do. This is a great feeling to be able to accomplish something like this so early in the season.'

Several other Storm players had a strong tournament. Dan Sedlack had 26 kills and 12 blocks. Cameron Nylec added 21 kills, 8 aces, 31 passes, 8 blocks, and 15 digs. Shil Patel had team-highs with 39 passes and 16 digs. Joe Besler delivered a team-high 80 assists to go with 8 blocks. Everett Torres put down 24 kills.

Bartlett finished second in the tournament with a 4-1 record. The Hawks had wins over Streamwood (25-19, 25-21), St. Edward (25-12, 25-17), Larkin (26-24, 25-18), and Elgin (25-23, 27-25).

"We are still coming together as a team, but I saw a lot of good things today," Bartlett coach Bob Schwantz said. "We have some strong outside hitters that can hit over the blocks that we go to a lot and we have some good speed in the back row. We still need to work on getting the middles more involved and staying within the system and more consistency with our serving. But I think we are coming along."

Elgin finished the tournament 3-2 despite missing a few key players including 6-foot-8 Courtese Cooper, who had a prior commitment. The Maroons had wins over Larkin (25-16, 25-16), St. Edward (25-6, 25-2), and Streamwood (29-27, 25-20).

Marcus Gonzalez led the Maroons with 34 kills on the day. Kyle Tayag added 17 kills and 23 digs. Rudy Romo had a team-high 27 digs and Franky Ceballos had a team-high 59 assists to go with 10 digs, 6 aces, and 5 blocks. David Ramirez was the team leader in blocks with 9 and also had 8 kills.

"Obviously having Courtese in the middle at 6-8 would have made a big difference," Elgin coach Scott Stewart said. "But it was good to see some other guys step up. We still need to work on some things, but I am really happy with the fight and energy they have shown. Even in the games we lost today they never stopped playing hard."

Streamwood finished 2-3 in the tournament with wins over Larkin (25-19, 25-23) and St. Edward 25-17, 25-14). Larkin's only win came over St. Edward in the final round 25-16, 25-17.