Wheaton Warrenville South plays like a defending champ
Well, that's more like it.
Wheaton Warrenville South's boys volleyball team came through with a crisp, 25-16, 25-12 win at Downers Grove South Wednesday. That came a day after the defending state champion struggled through a three-game win over West Chicago in their season debut.
"Last night was a lot of everything, the pressure, the hype," WW South coach Bill Schreier said. "We were playing multiple opponents last night, namely ourselves, trying to overcompensate for things rather than just going out and playing. I thought tonight was a better indicator of what we're all about."
Schreier noticed his team was a little tight Tuesday in light of the expectations heaped upon his Tigers (2-0). Coming into the season, Wheaton Warrenville South is the top-ranked team in Illinois and is ranked No. 3 nationally by Rivals.com.
"I think a lot of it, I talked to some of the guys about it, was jitters," Tigers team captain Eric Hardek said. "I just told the guys that I refuse to let this be a close game, and they responded. We played well."
Downers Grove South (1-1) came out strong in Game 1, taking a 4-3 lead on Chris Toth's block kill. But the Tigers began to roll from then on, never trailing again in the entire match. They built a 20-13 lead with a dominating offensive display, led by 4 kills apiece from Hardek and Rob Samp. In that stretch the Mustangs managed only 1 offensive point, scoring the rest of their points off of Tigers' miscues.
"They found our inexperience," Downers South coach Tony Nevrly said. "They found our sophomores (Downers South has six sophomores on the varsity team this season) and served to them and we couldn't do much."
The Tigers roared to a 10-2 lead in Game 2 behind freshman Eric Luhrsen. He had 2 kills and a block in that opening run. Luhrsen was in the lineup in place of middle blocker Neal Whittington, who is sidelined with a collapsed lung. Whittington informed the coaching staff just Monday of his condition, which may have contributed to some of the team's struggles Tuesday.
"We have to wait for it to inflate itself, basically," said Schreier, who said there is no timetable for Whittington's return. "They don't really want to do the surgery. He's not in any pain. He feels good. He has some shortness of breath, but he'll be fine."
WW South pushed its lead to 23-9 in Game 2 before winning it 25-12. Of the Tigers' last 10 points, seven came on Downers South errors.
"I think you start reading the press clippings and sometimes you put teams and people on pedestals," Nevrly said. "We may have done that tonight. I think they were a little nervous. We played 39 matches last year. This is one. They don't crown the state champion in March, they crown it (May 30-31)."
It is the second time the Tigers have beaten the Mustangs in their past five matches tracing back to last season. Wheaton Warrenville South knocked Downers Grove South out in the state quarterfinals last spring.