Willowbrook can't slow Mustangs

The Downers Grove South's boys volleyball team is a far cry from last year's team that qualified for the state tournament at this early point in the season, but the Mustangs are working to get to that level by the end of the year.

On Tuesday the host Mustangs jumped out to a 17-4 Game 1 lead over Willowbrook and then seemed to relax a little before winning the match in 25-15, 25-19.

While Downers Grove South coach Tony Nevrly sees great potential in this team, he's realistic that because he has only three seniors, it will take time for the younger players to get up to speed.

"We're still a young team trying to get our identity," Nevrly said. "If our seniors do a good job of leading, it will move the younger kids along more quickly. We didn't get that consistent leadership tonight, especially in the second game."

The Warriors (0-3) haven't played in two weeks and seemed tentative until well past the midpoint of the first game, when they were able to establish a block and began completing passes.

For the remainder of that game, the Warriors outscored the Mustangs 11-8.

"Our team laid back a little and didn't play at our level," said outside hitter Chris Toth. "We have to play our game. We have a lot of young kids and they don't know that you have to keep a constant pace. If we can get them to play at that higher level consistently, we'll be good."

Toth, who was a member of the Daily Herald All-Area team last year, thought the Mustangs' passing and defense were strong and that the blocking was good at times.

However, 12 service errors by the Mustangs (3-1) helped keep Willowbrook hopeful that it could force a third game.

The Warriors tied Game 2 at 11-11 and later on got as close as 18-17 on a Justin Paggao kill.

But the Mustangs stiffened at the end and pulled away on a pair of kills by Zach Jacob and a statement cross-court smash by Toth.

Toth and Buddy Steinhaus led the Mustangs with 7 kills each and Pat Soukup dealt 23 assists. Libero Tony Coglianese led with 6 digs and Nick Toth had 4 kills and 3 blocks.

"It isn't how we start but how we finish," Nevrly said. "We're going to creep, crawl, walk and run. Right now we're creeping, but we're making progress. We have to start crawling soon because the other teams will be getting better and we don't want to be left behind."

Kyle Shanahan and Paggao had 2 kills each for the Warriors and Eric McCarthy led with 4 digs.

"We really showed the effects of having played so few games and no games in the past two weeks," said Willowbrook coach Diane Vegter. "Our communication wasn't there, nor was our passing at first, and we had a lot of missed serves and that's unacceptable. Our defense improved later in the match."