Boys volleyball: Oswego clips Waubonsie Valley
Waubonsie Valley coach Noel Soto believes his team will have many bright days this season.
Monday wasn't one of them.
Looking lethargic after a three-day break, the host Warriors came out flat and lost to Oswego 25-18, 25-20 in Aurora.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Waubonsie (2-6), which lost to Oswego for the second time this season.
"Not to take anything away from (the Panthers) - they're a very good team and they showed it tonight," Soto said. "Our guys didn't show up to play today.
"We had a ton of missed serves and our serve receive was horrible. We hosted a freshman B invite so the boys had pretty much the whole weekend off."
The Warriors were rested but rusty and it showed. Six players made service errors and the offense could never get in rhythm. Senior Chris Breuer had 5 kills, and fellow seniors Jonah Weisler and Jack Rafferty had 3 each, but the rest of the team combined for only 2 kills.
Part of that was Oswego's outstanding defense, which stymied the Warriors at key moments of both sets. Junior libero Ryne Anders was a dervish in the back row and at the service line, where he ripped off 7 straight points during an 8-0 run that gave the Panthers (6-10) a 19-9 lead in Game 2.
"He's always our defensive workhorse," Oswego coach Zachary Splitt said. "He's always going to be able to give us, at the least, solid defense. The nicest thing that I saw out of him today was a lot of defensive communication."
Oswego's defensive effort wasn't limited to the back row. The visitors had 7 blocks, 4 of which came off the hands of middle Nicholas Palatine.
"The biggest pleasant surprise tonight was our defense," Splitt said. "I thought we blocked exceptionally well. We were doing a very good job of finishing our blocks."
Anders' big service run was a repeat of Game 1, which was tight for the first 20 points until Palatine spiked a kill, which triggered an 8-0 run on setter Anthony Marchese's serve.
The Warriors fought back in each game. Breuer had back-to-back kills and senior libero Elliot Myong served an ace to cut the Game 1 deficit to 23-18 before Palatine's kill and a Julian Serrano ace ended it.
Waubonsie used an 11-4 run in Game 2 to close within 23-20 before the Panthers finished it with a Ben Williams kill and a Waubonsie error.
Soto said the futile comebacks provided a valuable lesson.
"I told them, you guys look like a team that has had three days off and hasn't worked," Soto said. "You've got to come to play every single night.
"But we'll bounce back. This is a great group of kids. It's not how we start; it's how we end, so I'm not worried about this team."