Boys volleyball: Height helps Addison Trail overcome Willowbrook

Addison Trail posed a tall order for short-handed Willowbrook Tuesday in Villa Park.

"We like to think we're one of the taller teams out there," said 6-foot-3 middle blocker Kannon Nelms. "We pride ourselves on playing strong at the net."

Nelms had 4 of Addison Trail's 8 blocks and he, 6-5 Colton Noel and 6-7 Alex Murillo combined for 15 kills as the Blazers defeated District 88 rival Willowbrook 25-20, 25-21 in the West Suburban Gold.

"All of our experience is at the net," said Nelms, one of the few veterans of last year's third-place finisher. "We don't have a lot of experience with our backrow players, so we try to make it solid up front."

Addison Trail jumped out to a 19-13 lead in Game 1 and a 15-5 advantage in Game 2, but Willowbrook put together a 5-0 run to close the gap in the first set and scored 9 unanswered points in the second set to get within 15-14.

"The biggest thing we're taking away from today is that we need to be able to eliminate long runs," Addison Trail coach Chad Grant said. "We're fighting the consistency battle. We have flashes of really good play, then we have a couple errors in a row and those things start to avalanche.

"We have to try to eliminate that," he added. "We have the size that can pose problems for teams. We blocked pretty well tonight. We just have to be consistent and make good decisions during those times when we're struggling a little bit."

The win was the 11th in the last 14 matches for Addison Trail, which improved to 16-19 overall and 4-2 in conference heading into Monday's regional opener against Notre Dame at Maine East.

"We've been close all year," Nelms said. "All of our games have been tight games, minus a few, win or lose. We're going to need some of the younger kids stepping up and some of the older kids leading the team. We're really close. We're right there."

Ivan Tassov, Joe Ernst and Brendan Waldorf each had 4 kills to lead Willowbrook (14-19, 3-3), which played without 6-6 middle blocker Ian Walsh (ankle). Sophomore Nick Cookingham and junior Calvin Linnig added 6 assists apiece.

"Addison Trail had some nice pin blockers," Willowbrook coach Ryan Bazon said. "Those guys are big boys and we couldn't figure out how to hit around them. Our passes weren't good enough to get solo (attacks) on the outside and hitting into double (blocks) just isn't going to work.

"The kids gave it all they could," the coach added. "Addison Trail is a good team."

Willowbrook opens regional play Monday against Metea Valley at Downers Grove South.

"Hopefully, we'll get a full roster back for the regional," Bazon said. "That would be fantastic. We had a chance to see Metea Valley already once this year and lost 25-22, 25-21. I feel we've gotten better as a team, so I'm just excited to go out there and see our kids play."