Boys volleyball: Glenbard West prevails at Benet invite
When you are the two-time defending state champion, you are going to get everybody's best shot.
Glenbard West certainly had its hands full Saturday at the Benet Invitational, fighting off Neuqua Valley 30-28, 32-30 in the semifinals and Naperville Central 25-23, 25-18 in the championship match.
The boys volleyball tournament title was the second in a row for the Hilltoppers (23-1), who suffered their only loss of the season against Lake Park three weeks ago in the finals at Glenbard East.
"Every single time we step on the floor, the team that's playing us is going to give it all they got," said Glenbard West setter Sean Farmer. "We know teams that we play are always coming up with their 'A' game."
Naperville Central (19-10) earned a berth opposite Glenbard West in the championship match by defeating Neuqua Valley 25-21, 25-23 in pool play Friday and St. Francis 25-16, 25-20 in Saturday's Gold bracket semifinals.
The Redhawks used a 7-0 run to overcome a 19-13 deficit in the first set of the title bout, but kills by Robbie Murphy, Farmer and Matt Scruggs shut the door on Central. Glenbard West also opened a 19-13 lead in Game 2, but this time there would be no dramatic rally by Naperville Central.
"We make errors in bunches," said Naperville Central coach Roger Strausberger. "That's been our Achilles' heel all season. We're up 20-19 in the first set and two passing errors and three hitting errors are the difference.
"I thought we scrapped well for a little bit, but we'd do one or two good things then three or four bad things," he added.
Johnny Winkler led Glenbard West with 7 kills, Matt Scruggs added 5 kills and 5 blocks and Farmer had 22 assists, 2 kills and 2 blocks. Naperville Central got 5 kills, 2 blocks and an ace from John Davis, 5 kills and 8 digs from Kyle Ramey and 13 assists and a kill from Tim Folliard.
"Last weekend (at the Brother Rice tournament) we played the best we've played all year," Farmer said. "I don't know if we took a step back this weekend, but it's certainly not the level we want to play. We just want to take what we learned from these games and try to use that to make us better."
Neuqua Valley (15-6), which was unable to convert two sets points in Game 1 and three in Game 2 of its semifinal match with Glenbard West, had to settle for third place after defeating St. Francis 25-23, 25-23.
"Volleyball is such an emotional sport," said Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza. "It's one of those things where sometimes mentally the guys don't get hyped up. But they know Glenbard West is one of the top teams in the state and they go out there, whether they realize it or not, they play with a little bit more emotion, a little bit more pace."