Skwirut helps Elk Grove hit past Palatine

The undefeated Elk Grove boys volleyball team was struggling with its service against visiting Palatine.

Serve after serve kept going into the net or out of play and the Grens, after taking Game 1 handily, found themselves on their heels in Game 2.

And when Palatine senior middle Ronny Lampen put down a hard kill off a perfect set from B.J. Boldog, the match was tied at 1 game apiece and the Pirates had the momentum.

Luckily for Elk Grove and senior Bryan Skwirut, there was nothing wrong with the Grenadiers' hitting.

Skwirut, possibly the hardest hitter in the Mid-Suburban League, was 28-of-31 on attack with 17 kills as Elk Grove recovered and improved to 3-0 with a 25-21, 26-28, 25-17 Mid-Suburban League crossover victory.

"We finally figured out that we had to start getting our serves in to win this match," said Skwirut, who abandoned his jump-serving technique in Game 3. "In the second game we were making way too many errors."

Garrett Greaves added 9 kills for the Grens, Nick Mortensen recorded 8 and setter John Condon netted 35 assists.

"Our poor serving was killing us," agreed Elk Grove coach Dan Windholz. "I think in the beginning we were playing not to lose. We were being extra cautious, but we worked our way out of it."

First-year Palatine coach Frank Stark, whose team was led by Boldog's 17 assists on 70-for-70 setting, had an entirely different take on his team's play from the service line.

"It's always hard after a loss to talk about anything positive," said Stark, "but I think one thing that has been consistently good is our serving.

"We started at about 80 percent (success rate) on serve and now we're up to about 95 percent, so that's quite an improvement."

A kill from Skwirut handed Game 1 to the Grens, then Elk Grove rallied in Game 2 and took a 24-22 lead after an ace by Robin Philip.

But Palatine (4-4) wasn't about to say die and behind Boldog, Lampen, sophomore Nat Pearson and 6-foot-10 senior blocking machine Josh Rustman (9 kills, 8 blocks) came back to win the second game.

"When he (Rustman) is out there, you just try to stay away from him," said Skwirut. "He puts up a pretty big block."

Two early blocks from Rustman gave Palatine a quick 4-1 Game 3 lead but Elk Grove regained their focus, limited the late errors and steadily pulled away.

Lampen contributed 7 kills to the Palatine attack while Philip excelled on defense and finished with 17 digs for the Grenadiers.

"In a way," said Skwirut, "it was a good thing, losing Game 2. It showed that we can come back and pull it out in Game 3, and get the fire going.

"We've been putting in a lot of time in practice, and it's paying off."