Boys volleyball: With enthusiastic leadership, Grayslake North prevails

Every high school has a handful of teachers like Nikki Kirchway.

The extra bubbly kind.

Kirchway, a Spanish teacher at Grayslake North, is upbeat and energetic not only in the classroom, but on the sidelines too. She's the head coach of the boys varsity volleyball team at the school.

Kirchway was trying to channel her energy into her players Thursday night as Grayslake North took on visiting Grant. She stood along the sidelines and was vocal on every play, often excitedly cheering points by her team.

"Ask my students, this is just the way I am. I'm normally vocal," said Kirchway, who admits to sometimes mistakenly communicating to her players in the huddle in Spanish, out of habit. "And I think it worked tonight. I think it helped the team."

Grayslake North kept its energy high in rolling to a 25-19, 25-21 sweep of Grant in an early season match for both teams. Grayslake North is now 1-0 on the season and Grant is 0-2.

"We worked as a team and we executed," said Grayslake North outside hitter Nick LeBaron, who tied teammate Jarod Hesse for game high in kills with 11 kills each. "Our energy is high. We get the ball rolling."

Grayslake North was ahead for the entire first set, but was behind early in the second set. The Knights then went on a 5-0 run to take a 12-9 lead and never fell behind again.

"We couldn't keep a rally," said Grant hitter Ian Fox, who had a team-high 5 kills and 6 blocks. "We had a strong offense and we had a good defense. We just couldn't keep it going. We lost some of the simple points that we should have gotten."

Andrew Ryczek added 3 kills for Grant while setter JP Gizowski finished with 11 assists.

The Bulldogs return no starters from last year.

"It's going to take some time, but we're going to be there, there's no doubt about that," Grant coach Michele Keenan said. "We just need to keep working on the basics."

For Grayslake North, setter Nick Anello had 12 assists and Sam Inmon had 15 digs.