Boys volleyball: Smith, Palatine grow up quickly in win against Fremd

Palatine sophomore Bryant Smith admitted that he had a few butterflies prior to Thursday night's boys volleyball match at Fremd.

The crosstown rivalry contest was Smith's first-ever varsity game.

"I had a few nerves," said the sophomore, "but they cleared up once the match went on. My teammates were helping me a lot - they kept encouraging me."

And with the game on the line in the third set, Smith delivered, earning 2 key kills as the Pirates posted a spirited 22-25, 25-23, 25-22 win in the Mid-Suburban West.

Another Palatine soph, Johnny O'Shea, hit 6 of his game-high 15 kills in the final set as the Pirates improved to 8-0, and 2-0 in conference.

"Johnny was crazy amazing tonight," said Pirates coach Frank Stark. "The guys started a little flat, but you've got to give Fremd a lot of credit. Their blocking was great and they were very good on defense."

Senior outside hitter Tyler Larson had 11 kills for the Vikings, who were 2 points away from a 2-set victory but fell victim to a Palatine rally.

"I thought the kids did a great job," said Fremd coach Curt Pinley. "We were missing a couple of starters tonight and we had to juggle our lineup, but everyone responded and gave a great effort."

The back-and-forth match started to get intense in the first set, when Palatine came back from a huge deficit helped along by a couple of timely kills in the middle from senior Zach Wheat.

"We work on that a lot in practice," Smith said. "We give our starting six a deficit, and then we work on rallying in the scrimmage. It helps us in comebacks and it also helps us in preventing comebacks."

Fremd was able to take the first set on a Palatine hitting error, but the Pirates won set two.

With the score at 23 all, Patrick Stach swatted a kill that was just in, then Fremd hit one wide to open the door for the visitors.

"We were all in our heads," said Palatine sophomore Camden Hill. "A lot of us, myself included, weren't having the kind of game we expected to have. Coach Stark called a time out and he brought us together."

Set 3 was knotted up at 10-10, but Palatine extended the lead to 13-10, helped along by a terrific block kill from Smith.

"That 3-point run was the key," said Pinley. "We kept pushing but we couldn't catch up."

The Vikings were able to get within 24-21 after a kill by Larson, but Palatine served the next ball into the net to give the win to Fremd.

Wheat had 13 kills for the Pirates, while defensive specialist Patrick Kurka led the Vikings with 31-of-33 passing and 21 digs.

Kaleb Scharman had 30 assists for the Vikings, who coincidentally also had a sophomore, Aaron Peterson, competing in his first varsity match.

"I told Aaron about 20 minutes before the game that he'd be playing," Pinley said. "He's an athletic kid and a fantastic player and he really stepped up."

Buffalo Grove d. Prospect: The Bison improved to 2-0 in the MSL East by topping the Knights 25-16, 25-18.

Top contributors for the Bison included Zach Schnittker (8 kills, 21 assists), Greg Schneider (13-for-13 serving), Danny Zickert (5 kills and 10-for-12 serving, 2 aces).

Scott Backus paced Prospect with 6 kills and 10 assists.

Barrington d. Hoffman Estates: TJ Murray (7 kills), Joe Roeckell (5) and Mikey Stefan (5) were top attackers for the Broncos in a 25-12, 25-15 MSL West triumph.

Jack Ridgway (9 assists), Evan Carroll (6) and Matt Rowley (4) set the attack while Connor Shouts and Carroll each served 2 aces. Stephen Wanca scooped up 4 digs for the winners and Justin Tiao had 3 for Barrington.

Miguel Pineda and Bailey Maze both had 3 kills for Hoffman Estates, and T.J. Rodgers had a team-best 5 assists.

Elk Grove d. Wheeling: The Grenadiers posted a 25-14, 25-22 victory in the MSL East as Anthony Prochenski (10-12), Ed Gonzalez (12-14, 3 aces) and Michael Miceli (6-8, 1 ace) were tops in the serving department for the winners.

Gonzalez (43-43, 21 assists) set the attack which was led by Shivam Patel (8 kills, 3 blocks), Kevin Braceros (7 kills) and Connor Emmerich (5 kills, 1 block).

Brendon Rathman (16-16) and Prochenski (12-12) led the Grens on serve receive.

Prochenski also had 11 digs while Braceros had 5.

Hersey d. Rolling Meadows: Hersey posted a 25-23, 25-21 victory, which raised the Huskies' record to 3-0 and 2-0 in the MSL East.

Angelo Coniglio had 6 kills while Dan Swan, Matt Hopkins and John Bouvier each had 4. Vince Reisel collected 20 assists.

Hopkins led Hersey with 4 blocks while Bouvier and Reisel had 2 apiece.

The Mustangs' attack was led by 7 kills from Tommy Murphy, who collected 6 digs, 2 aces and 2 blocks.

Tim Bouraoui, Szymon Kleniuk and Kyle Kornblum each had 1 ace for the Mustangs while Marc Quezada collected 4 digs

Trevor Glasgow, Wes Carroll and Arthur Barczak each contributed a block for Rolling Meadows.

Riverside Brookfield d. Leyden: Host Riverside-Brookfield won the nonconference match 25-22, 25-14.