Boys volleyball: Pitch-perfect performance as Hersey gets past Prospect
Before the postgame meeting after a win over Prospect, the Hersey boys volleyball team was attending to some serenading duty.
The Huskies players made their way over to the bleachers to sing Happy Birthday to Grandma Mailloux.
Marlene Mailloux, or "Grandma" as she's affectionately known to the team, is an avid supporter of the Huskies - especially her grandson, senior outside hitter Jake Mailloux.
On Thursday night, the Huskies helped celebrate her 80th birthday in style with a 25-21, 25-19 victory at Jean Walker Field House in Mt. Prospect.
"It was great to do something special for her," said Huskies coach Nancy Lill of the impromptu musical performance, which followed a Hersey comeback win.
The Huskies spotted the Knights an early lead in the first set but stormed back to win both games to improve to 10-1 on the season, and 4-0 in the Mid-Suburban East.
Senior Christian Hong had 8 digs for Hersey while classmate Camran Saeed led the way on attack with 8 kills.
Saeed was impressive at the net as well with 5 blocks.
"They (Prospect) started out hot," said Jake Mailloux. "We were a little sloppy but we were able to fix a couple of errors, make some adjustments and keep chipping away at the lead."
Prospect's Quinn Benson finished with a team high 5 kills and senior Josh Kern had 10 digs.
"I felt like we were in the match most of the night," said Knights coach Mike Riedy. "but some errors on our part took us out of the game. We'd have a sideout, and we'd serve into the net or hit the ball out of bounds.
"Overall though I thought we played pretty well."
Prospect hit its way to an early 11-7 lead in first set, forcing Hersey to take a quick time out.
"Coach Lill just told us (during the time out) that we had to clean it up, because most of what was going wrong was errors on our side," said Huskies senior right-side Michal Markevych. "We're always able to come together after every point. No matter what happens, we're able to shake it off and get the next one."
The Huskies scored the next 4 points to tie the game at 11, and it was nip-and-tuck from that point on until late in the set when 3 kills from Saeed -and another by middle Joe Nugent - saw Hersey take a 1-set lead.
"We've been in that situation before (trailing in a match) so we've learned to bounce back," said Lill. "I think our team has the confidence to know that they always can come back. But obviously you don't want to put yourself in that position."
Hersey was virtually unstoppable through the middle part of set 2, but Knights senior Zach Matters helped the home team rally.
Matters had a couple of kills and an ace to bring Prospect within 15-19, but once again it was the hitting of Saeed and Nugent (5 blocks) that closed out the match.
Markevych had 3 kills for Hersey in the second set, while teammate Jakub Migus, a junior setter, finished with 17 assists and 2 aces.
"We always just keep on fighting to the end," said Migus. "We never settle - a lot of times when teams get down they wind up giving the other team easy points, but we stay aggressive and that helps us get back from any deficit."
"We had some uncharacteristic errors and miscommunications tonight," said Lill. "Our offense was a little bit off and hitters weren't able to terminate, but we got the win, so we're happy."
Ben Miller pitched in 4 kills for Prospect while Danny Weiler had 15 assists and an ace.
"We've played some really good volleyball this year against some really good teams," said Riedy, "but then we've have some complete brain cramps at other times.
"But I think the guys are starting to get some self-confidence, and they're starting to believe that they can compete with the top teams like the Herseys and the Lake Parks. The biggest thing for us right now is that we have to learn how to win."