Boys volleyball: Metea Valley overcomes Willowbrook
Sometimes you feel the urge to drop in soft serves to make sure they land in safely, and other times it's best to let 'em rip.
Thursday night Metea Valley boys volleyball captain Matt Nealon went full speed ahead with his jump serves, and the result was 6 aces and several other serves that gave visiting Willowbrook fits. With Nealon and his teammates starting fast in each game - as well as turning in one of their better serving and blocking efforts of the year - the Mustangs easily snapped a four-game skid with a 25-9, 25-17 nonconference defeat of the Warriors.
Metea Valley (9-10) jumped out to leads of 10-3 and 18-7 in the opener before Nealon made sure the hosts claimed the first game with a dominating finish. With Nealon serving the Mustangs rattled off six straight points powered by a trio of aces and also including a diving dig by Nealon that turned into a winner on the other side of the net.
"In past games I had been sticking to a more conservative float serve and trying to get the ball in," he said. "Recently I noticed it's just not cutting it and I have to step up and actually rip a serve once in a while. It's been working lately so I've been sticking with it."
Nealon pinpointed several serves to the back corners and the Warriors were left to let some go by in the hopes that they would go deep. Most of the time on Thursday the Mustangs' serves were right on target.
"It felt great getting back there and just ripping a couple balls. This can be a good way to push through the upcoming York tournament we have and to boost morale."
Metea Valley used a 12-2 run to take a commanding 16-6 lead in the second game before the Warriors put up a little bit of a fight. Tim Keefe paced Willowbrook (8-11) with 4 kills, but the tough night of serving and blocking by the Mustangs made things tough on the visitors.
"They're a good team. (Coach) Aister always put together a solid team," Willowbrook coach Ryan Bazon said of the Mustangs. "We usually play them pretty competitively. It was a little different tonight, but we're not that bad."
Outside hitter Andrew Kohut kept up his solid play with 10 kills to pace the Mustangs. Joey Kisiel added 3 kills to the balanced attack.
"We came out really strong and gave them everything we had. We were then able to get a lot of other guys in to play and they still gave them heat and gave them everything strong," said Kohut, who was clicking with the setter Nealon. "It felt good. We had really good connection and we kept our tempo pretty fast. It felt really good."
Mustangs coach John Aister was impressed most by his team's fire.
"They were playing well. We made a point in practice last night after a couple losses in a row to bring the energy. I felt our guys did that pretty well tonight and that was the main thing I was looking for is the effort and the energy," Aister said. "They did that well and the rest kind of fell into place with Nealon serving tough from the line."