Naperville Central's Yanz gets jump on West Aurora

Matt Yanz served the Naperville Central boys volleyball team to a good start in the DuPage Valley Conference.

The 6-foot-6 senior middle hitter uncorked 6 aces with his jump serve to spark the Redhawks to a 25-6, 25-17 sweep of visiting West Aurora in a DVC opener Tuesday night in Naperville.

Yanz is proving to be dangerous beyond at the net. His jump serve has been clicking of late, and it's producing points.

"Hitting the ball in front of you is the key," Yanz said about being successful with his serve. "I've been able to do it before, but not to this extent. Everything's just been coming together."

"Even in the beginning of the season his timing just wasn't there, but as of late he's really contacting the ball well," Naperville Central coach Bryan Johnwick said. "Even though he's serving hard he's able to place the ball where we want it."

It's a hard serve that often drops in front of a defensive player, sometimes untouched.

"It's a top-notch serve," West Aurora coach Jen Towers said.

Towers' club was up against it from the start. It was the first match of the season for the Blackhawks (0-1, 0-1), while Naperville Central (11-1, 1-0) was playing for the 12th time.

The Redhawks looked sharp from the start, while Towers said her team suffered from a case of the "jitters."

Naperville Central jumped ahead 11-2 and 18-4 before scoring the game's final 7 points in a nearly flawless performance.

The Redhawks committed only 1 error, a net violation, while West Aurora made 12 errors.

Game 2 turned out to be far more competitive as the Blackhawks shook off their nervousness and put up a better fight.

"We hit better," Towers said.

Naperville Central held an 18-16 edge, then scored the next 5 points, 3 on aces by Yanz.

Dan Dierking led the winners in kills with 7. Mike Trajkovich finished with 6 and Yanz added 4.

Mason Walgrave and Vinni Soto paced West Aurora with 4 kills apiece.

"Overall we played well this evening," Johnwick said. "It's our first conference win and it's a very tough conference, so every match counts. It was a good opportunity for our non-starters to play, and everybody performed well."