Boys volleyball: Naperville North defeats Glenbard East

Naperville North is putting the band back together.

Playing with a full boys volleyball lineup for just the second time this season, Naperville North fought off three game points in Game 2 and rallied to defeat Glenbard East 25-19, 28-26 in a battle between former DuPage Valley Conference foes Tuesday in Naperville.

The Huskies improved to 5-6 after back-to-back 2-3 finishes at the Vernon Hills and Wheaton Warrenville South tournaments with several key players absent.

"We were missing people over the spring break due to vacations and family emergencies," said 6-foot-4 outside hitter Michael Jennings. "This is one of the first times we've had our entire team back, especially our starters. It was great to see them all work together."

Jennings, who led the Huskies with 15 kills, including a rocket down the line at match point, said he saw improvement even from last weekend.

"I think communication is the key for us," the Lindenwood (Mo.) recruit said. "We have a talented team. There are a few things we need to work on, but I feel like we will improve on those as the season goes on. Communication is the huge thing."

Jennings added an ace and 8 digs for Naperville North, which also got 7 kills from 6-6 middle Casey Miller, 5 kills and 2 blocks from Philippe Russian, and 27 assists from Kyle Josupait.

"We're still trying to figure out a couple of positions, but we have an idea what we want to do," Naperville North coach Nate Bornancin said. "We've been running this lineup since the second day of the Wheaton South tournament. I feel like the guys are building confidence with it.

"Our passing got better as the match went on," he added. "We were able to run our middles more because our passing picked up. I would like us to clean up a little bit on our serving, and on defense there are balls that are dropping that we can still get to."

Glenbard East (4-3), which rallied from a 21-18 deficit in Game 2 to lead 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25, got 8 kills and 16 digs from junior Justin Murphy and 4 kills apiece from Mason Arnold and Kyle Becker.

The Rams played without leading attacker and lone returning starter Tyler Greene, who sat out the match after missing practices over the break.

"We needed to put the ball away at the end," Glenbard East coach Marci Maier said. "We kept our intensity up and we battled, but at the end of the day we need to execute better and we would have given ourselves an opportunity to get to a third set."