Boys volleyball: Hegranes, Wheaton North serve up victory against St. Charles East
The serves by Wheaton North senior boys volleyball player Trenton Hegranes can be deceptive and aggressive.
"I try to get it to float so that it has no spin on it so it's hard to tell which way it's going to move," Hegranes said. "Also if I put some zip on it, then it has some speed on it, too, so you're kind of guessing where it's going to go."
In much the same way Monday, Wheaton North and St. Charles East each wavered during various points of their nonconference match before the Falcons regained focus in the third set for a 25-11, 24-26, 25-11 victory in Wheaton.
The Falcons (10-3) had match point in the second set at 24-21, but then the Saints (8-6) reeled off five straight points - their best stretch of the night.
In the third set Hegranes served the Falcons to the lead for good at 4-2 and later had a 6-point streak for a 19-10 advantage.
"We just had to come back and play harder. I don't think we gave it our all in that second set," Hegranes said. "(The second set) was kind of annoying. We kind of thought they were going to kind of roll over, I guess, in the second set, and then they didn't."
Senior Daniel Duggan and junior Benett Schreiner led the Falcons' balanced offense with 9 kills each. Senior Matt Frank had 28 assists, senior Jack Ranft 7 digs and Duggan also 6 blocks and 3 aces.
Leading St. Charles East were junior Mik Brunovskis with 13 kills, junior Colin Hanley with 7 kills and 2 aces, senior Lucas Coker with 27 assists and sophomore Jakob Coker with 10 digs.
The Falcons won their third three-set match, while all three losses are in three sets, including to New Trier. They visit rival Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday.
"I told them you can't just expect a team to roll over. I felt like we just coasted a little bit (the second set)," Wheaton North coach John Noe said. "What got on those momentum swings in the first set was aggressive serving, blocking at the net, and then everything else kind of fell into place. And that's what really helped us in the third set."
In that third set Duggan, Schreiner and senior Drew Ogilvie each had 2 kills and Duggan 2 aces. Ogilvie finished with 8 kills and Hegranes added 4.
"We had a lot of tips at the end of the second set, which ended up not being kills. We talked about being really aggressive," said the 6-foot-7 Duggan, who will play at McKendree University in downstate Lebanon.
"We spread the ball pretty well. If everyone's on, that's when we win games. We always have around 5 kills for maybe three guys each match."
The Saints, seventh at their invite Saturday, had 17 kills with 7 attack errors in the second set but 13 kills with 18 errors in the other two. While not using it as an excuse, St. Charles East coach Kate McCullagh said her team's problems adjusting to a lower court ceiling kind of typified the match.
"I would say it was a little shaky the whole match. It just kind of felt like we couldn't get going," McCullagh said. "The whole match was just up and down. We started off slow and then it's hard to pick up momentum after that."
A varsity reserve in 2017, Hegranes served for a personal match-best 18 service points, 8 in the first set. Although his first points opened a 9-4 lead in the first set, Noe felt he could serve even better.
"In practice I know I can hit them with more zip, (Noe) says, but in a game I get a little tense," Hegranes said. "This is my first year playing varsity so sometimes I'm a little bit nervous back there."
"His second trip back to the line in the first set, that really got us going," Noe said. "He picked up some confidence and got it going and then he carried that into the second and third sets."
In the second set the Falcons' offense suddenly was tentative at 24-21. After a service error on their first match point, the Falcons then had an attack error after tip attacks. An error on another tip attack tied the set 24-24.
The Saints scored the next two points on kills by Hanley, including one tip.
"I think we kind of surprised ourselves in (coming back) just because it just never really felt that great," McCullagh said.