Naperville North tops Brother Rice
After winning the Buffalo Grove Tournament last week, the Naperville North boys volleyball team doesn't have the element of surprise going for it any more.
The Huskies opened pool play Friday in the Tiger Classic at Wheaton Warrenville South with a 25-20, 25-20 win over Brother Rice.
In its second match against Oak Park-River Forest, Naperville North won 25-13, 25-17 to move into today's gold bracket.
"There will be no more surprises regarding Naperville North," said Brother Paul Ickes, the Brother Rice coach. "Roger (Strausberger) is a good coach with a good squad."
When the Huskies (6-2) lost at Neuqua Valley to open the season on March 19, it looked as though it would be awhile before they'd be able to turn things around. But at Buffalo Grove they made a dramatic improvement that continued in the Brother Rice match.
"In practice we started getting together a lot more as a team and playing with more energy and more confidence," said Mike Henry, the Huskies' co-leader in kills with 9. "We were hitting around the blocks a little better today. I was trying to find seams and trying to hit between the blocks."
In Game 1 the Huskies built a 10-6 lead, but the young Crusaders, who return only one starter from last year, came back to tie it twice at 15 and 16.
They stayed within 1 or 2 points until Henry tooled a shot off the Brother Rice block to make it 22-19.
Two kills by Jon Bunge finished off the game.
Naperville North never trailed in the second game, though they were tied twice, holding their biggest lead at 18-16 as the Crusaders' errors to mount. It was a pair of Brother Rice miscues that ended the game.
"We really played a great match against Glenbrook South in the championship match last weekend," Strausberger said. "Once you see yourself play like that, you know you can get back to that level of play."
After the loss at Neuqua Valley, Strausberger thought the Huskies offense relied on Bunge too much, but in Saturday's match it was apparent that Mike Buckman, the team's new starting setter, was becoming more comfortable with the position. He delivered 20 assists and utilized a variety of hitting options, including Henry and Dan Orna.
"A lot of our energy comes from Buckman," Strausberger said. "As a setter, you direct the tempo and flow of the game, and I like to get a quicker tempo. We also passed real well, giving him better opportunities. He doesn't have to move all over the place. It was a pretty decent win."
The Huskies defense also showed great improvement, as Bunge led with 10 digs and Buckman added 5.
"I like the digging numbers," Strausberger said. "We're trying to keep the ball alive and take advantage of those transition opportunities."
Ickes said his Crusaders (2-1) are having early-season growing pains, which included committing a number of passing errors.
"At times we were sending the ball every which way," he said. "We knew we were going to come out slow. "We're young and we've had just a couple of matches. We're just going to need some more time for the guys to come together."
Kevin Padden led Brother Rice with 6 kills and 6 digs.