Boys volleyball: Neuqua Valley knocks off Waubonsie Valley

Neuqua Valley did not lose a match Saturday at the Minooka tournament and still finished fifth out of 10 teams.

The Wildcats directed some of their frustration Tuesday at shorthanded Waubonsie Valley, whipping their DuPage Valley Conference rivals 25-12, 25-16 to improve to 13-6 with two ties. Both ties came in pool play at Minooka.

Neuqua Valley outside hitter Tom Biondo, who had 3 kills and 2 aces in Game 1 Tuesday against Waubonsie Valley, said his team learned some valuable lessons over the weekend.

"We learned that we needed to push more," he said. "We started slacking off. We started getting a little too cocky at times. Maybe we were getting angry at each other, getting upset so we didn't play our fullest. We learned we have to stay on the bright side of things no matter what happens."

There was plenty of sunshine in the Neuqua Valley gymnasium. Six Wildcats had kills in Game 1 as the hosts sprinted to leads of 7-2, 14-4, 17-6 and 23-9. Senior middle hitter Gregory Hedrick matched Biondo with 3 kills and a block in the opening set.

"It was nice to see that we ran our middles more, especially in that first game," said Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza. "It was harder to run stuff in second game because the lineup was a little bit different. We've got good middles, especially Hedrick, who's a real athletic middle.

"But he's just been more noticeable because of his blocking," the coach added. "If we can get him going offensively, that could be big for us, especially because our outsides aren't very big. They can jump and they're athletic, but they need help from the middles to relieve some of that pressure."

Neuqua Valley also got 15 assists and a block from Jack Dentzman, 4 kills and an ace from Joshua Alexander, 3 kills from Karl Deichmann and 4 assists from Kevin Kauling while improving to 2-1 in the DuPage Valley.

Jake Furman had 3 kills and 6 assists to lead Waubonsie Valley (7-16, 0-2), which played without five starters and brought up three players from the junior varsity to fill out the lineup. One of those JV call-ups was junior Jonah Tjaarda, who led the Warriors with 5 kills and a block.

"I thought Jonah did an excellent job on the right side," said Waubonsie Valley coach Noel Soto. "Jake's always reliable, but I think Jonah stepped up big at the right side today. I was very pleased with what I saw."

Waubonsie Valley, which was within 18-14 in Game 2 before Neuqua Valley pulled away, also got 3 blocks from junior Matthew Salmon.

"Missing five starters is huge for us, but the boys came out, they worked hard, they competed and that's all I can ask from them," Soto said. "We'll keep pressing forward and hopefully get some injured guys back and regroup for the playoffs."