Boys volleyball: Naperville Central prevails against Glenbard East
Boys volleyball doesn't get much more even than the first set between Naperville Central and host Glenbard East on Thursday.
Fifteen ties and six lead changes made for a fun set to watch, with Naperville Central eventually coming out on top.
"They're fun, but I think it's a lot easier just to get out and get the lead the entire time and keep fighting. But it's a fun game when it's back and forth," Redhawks senior John Davis said.
The second set met Davis' preference, though the result didn't. Glenbard East led start to finish, holding off a late Redhawks rally to force a third set.
"But we came around and did the same thing the third set right back to them," Davis said.
That gave the Redhawks a 26-24, 23-25, 25-19 nonconference victory in Lombard.
Still, the Rams (8-8) frustrated the Redhawks in that second game, and Naperville Central (11-4) contributed a few mistakes of its own.
"They scrap," Redhawks coach Roger Strausberger said of the Rams. "They're always a good defensive team. They keep the ball alive and frustrate you. That's kind of what we did. We help them out with our serving errors and coming out of timeouts I think we mis-served four times out of the timeouts. We've got to get a little mentally tougher out there and just execute when we need to execute."
"We did a good job in serve receive and we blocked some balls," Rams coach Marci Maier added of Game 2. "Our blocking was better in the second set. First and third set we had trouble blocking and serve receive broke down a little bit and they ripped the ball to the floor. They did a great job offensively, and we had difficulty stopping their offense today."
Davis led the Redhawks with 18 kills and 11 digs.
"John Davis is a great player," Strausberger said. "He went on a point run back there. He's on a hitting run in the front row. He's our everything right now. He's fearless. He's a great leader. He's a good captain. He's on a roll right now, so we get him the ball as much as possible."