Boys volleyball: St. Charles North battles past scrappy Saints
Up a set and with a 24-20 lead in the second Tuesday against St. Charles East, 6-foot-8 Tommy Koppang stepped to the service line and tried to end the match with a bang.
"I saw the lead and with the energy we had I was just kind of going ace or error," the St. Charles North senior said. "It might not be the best thing but it was working for me the rest of the match."
Koppang's jump serve hit the net for a service error, but the North Stars closed out a 25-23, 25-22 victory moments later on a kill by Alec Salyards.
The missed serve was about the only thing that didn't go down for the Pepperdine-bound outside. Koppang finished with a match-high 13 kills plus 2 aces, 5 digs and a block.
Koppany committed to Pepperdine in September over Lewis and Hawaii. He's one of 10 seniors for St. Charles North (7-5, 1-0).
"He's very special," North Stars coach Todd Weimer said. "He loves volleyball, that's all he does. He's got a phenomenal amount of physical ability to do a lot of things. He can serve, block, hit obviously, and he works really hard on his craft every day."
St. Charles East (6-2, 1-1) got off to a quick start. Two kills by Zach Kennedy helped the Saints open a 4-1 lead, and they never trailed while pushing the advantage to 19-15.
But the North Stars ended the first set with a 10-4 stretch, highlighted by a 5-point service run by Kyle Gruber, a block by Koppang, Brendan Dal Degan's kill and finally a winner by David Beach on set point.
St. Charles North never trailed in the second set but the Saints again pushed them. Trailing 22-16, St. Charles East got as close as 24-22.
"They were scrappy, didn't make a lot of errors, kept the ball in play, kept us off-balance," Weimer said. "I think we got outsmarted tonight. We just hung in there and battled as hard as we could. We didn't play our best match tonight. Kudos to St. Charles East for that."
Kennedy paced the Saints with 7 kills and got help from Jakob Coker (7 digs), Lucas Coker (17 assists), Drew Olsen (4 kills, 2 blocks) and Colin Hanley (4 kills).
"We're disappointed, we hate to lose but there were a lot of moments of good," Saints coach Kate McCullagh said. "We're just trying to find our groove. We've had different lineups the whole season and we feel hopeful moving forward. We have a pretty good all-around team. I feel everybody can contribute."
Max DeDobbelaere kept the North Stars in several rallies with 12 digs while Beach, Kyle Donlevy and Dal Degan all had 5 kills. Kyle Gruber led the North Stars in assists with 14 and Beach had 9.
Koppang said starting conference play with a win was important for a team looking for their first Upstate Eight championship since a run of three straight ended in 2015.
"We are a very senior heavy team and all of us are best friends," Koppang said. "We're just trying to work and be the best we can be."