Boys volleyball: Cook, Libertyville bounce back with impressive win

Brendan Cook might be a busy fellow next season.

Certainly, he'll strap his helmet on during football season. And he might give basketball a try next winter.

His spring seems permanently booked for boys volleyball.

But Cook's team, the Libertyville Wildcats, hit a little bump in the road with a pair of losses in the last week. So after a vigorous practice night on Tuesday, his Wildcats returned to winning ways on Wednesday night with a 25-16, 25-14 win over visiting Warren.

"We've always had the skills,'' Cook said. "We haven't always brought the energy we need every day."

Now, Warren isn't setting the volleyball world on fire, but the Blue Devils do have some key players, such as the very athletic Zach Schultz, and hard-hitters Mihajlo Gomez and Daniel Johnson.

Warren's problem in set one was simply getting their serves in. Three straight serves went into the net. Libertyville's Sam Kharasch (10 digs, 2 aces), went to the serving line with his team up 13-8. The junior landed two aces and had help on offense from Cook (8 kills), Jack Stevens (3 kills, 6 digs) and Shane Feieresel (3 kills, 2 blocks).

"We got our offense going,'' Feieresel said. "We just need more experience."

When Kharasch's serve was done, his Cats were up big at 19-9.

"We had a tough practice last night,'' said Libertyville coach Jenny Smith. "We knew we had to serve aggressively tonight. Warren has some big hitters."

Libertyville's Drew Fortini closed out the first set with a kill.

Warren played a better second set. Schultz led the Devils (12-14) with 6 kills. Gomez added 4 kills.

"Libertyville is big and athletic and they are still young,'' said Warren coach Yun Chen. "We still need to do the little things right."

A Gomez hard hit earned a kill and Warren was within 10-8 in set two.

And then Kharasch went back to the serving line for the Cats. Cook opened with another kill. Feieresel checked in with another block kill. And the always entertaining Nick Zoellick (3 kills, 6 digs) added some off-balance kills to the delight of the home crowd as Libertyville opened some breathing room.

Another young server, sophomore, Ryan Winiger went into serve for the Wildcats (18-8). This time sophomore Mark Demaree checked in with a kill. And then the Warren team kind of slipped away at the end as Winiger completed the game at the serving line.

Cook led his team in kills tonight but admitted he doesn't play much defense for his volleyball team. Feieresel was a little more blunt on that subject.

"I don't think I could even dig,'' he said.

But Libertyville setter Ryan Hirschel was his usual busy self with 20 assists, 3 blocks and 3 digs.