Wheaton Warrenville South's tower of power

When its system is really flowing, the Wheaton Warrenville South boys volleyball team can call on its obvious advantage -- power.

After pulling out a 25-23 win in the first game against Lake Park on Thursday, the bigger, more experienced Tigers proved to be ungracious hosts as they rode a midgame offensive barrage to win the second game 25-13.

It was the second win of the day for Wheaton Warrenville South (7-2) in its own Tiger Classic, having beaten Glenbrook South 25-9, 25-21 in its first match.

"We're a big team and we can try to intimidate people with our size, big blocks and big hits," said Tigers setter Joe Kelly. "But everything works off the pass. If I have a good pass, we can run every hitter we have. In the second game I was much happier with the passing."

"At the end of the first game, our passing got better," said Wheaton Warrenville hitter Eric Hardek. "And we had more intensity in the second game. We're veteran guys and we don't like to lose."

The Lancers (3-4) executed well early in Game 1 and put pressure on the Tigers. Lake Park led as late as 20-18 before committing a pair of hitting errors, which were followed by a kill by Kevin Mueller to put Wheaton in the lead at 21-20.

Game point was scored by Kelly, who dumped the ball over the net for a kill after the two teams engaged in an extended rally.

In Game 2 the Tigers took the lead 6-5 on a Mueller kill and never trailed again.

But with the score 14-10, the Tigers put on a display of that awesome power on a 5-1 sequence that broke the game wide open.

First, there was a thunderous smash by 6-feet-9 Neill Nystrom for the sideout, which was followed by a block and kill in quick succession by Rob Samp, also 6-9.

After a change of possession, Hardek put down a pair of exclamation point cross-court kills that made it 19-11.

"We're still learning to compete," said Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier. "You saw that especially in Game 2 when we were able to pull away. That was pretty critical on our part to be able to do that."

He praised Hardek for his strong defense in the match.

"The power is something that's always been there for our team," Schreier said. "But we have to do the other stuff, too. Hardek really impressed us tonight with his defensive intensity. He was really getting after things and making plays to create opportunities. If he continues to do that, it will just add to everything else he does."

The Lancers saw that they could stay with the Tigers in the first game, but they just couldn't sustain that level of play.

"In the first game our momentum was broken by a combination of our errors and several calls by the officials," Baker said. "But in the second game our passing just shut down. You give any team like that free balls and they just put them all down. We just have to look at the positives, work hard, be aggressive and figure things are eventually going to go our way. The energy and fire we had in the first game, we have to be like that all the time."

-- Neil Shalin

Baseball

Driscoll 10, Bloomington Central Catholic 2:ŒRick Divito and Adam Davis each went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI for the visiting Highlanders (3-0) in their nonconference victory. Mark Doroba (1-0) allowed no earned runs in 4 innings to earn the win.