BG, Palatine rally in MSL openers

Sometime in the latter part of last season, hard-hitting Buffalo Grove senior Joe Ascher picked up a nickname.

Ascher the Smasher.

Tuesday night at Prospect, the left-handed right side hitter lived up to his billing. With the crowd chanting his name, Ascher swatted 14 kills to lead the Bison to an important 23-25, 25-19, 25-19 victory over the Knights in their Mid-Suburban East boys volleyball opener.

"It started at the end of last year," said a modest Ascher, who recorded 260 kills and 51 aces in 2007 as a junior, of the moniker. "Now the JV guys have kind of picked up on it again this year."

Another BG hitter, junior outside Chris Falknor, added 12 kills as the Bison stormed back after dropping Game 1 to the team that just edged them out for last year's East crown.

"We've uniformly been starting slow this year in big matches," said BG coach Matt Aiello, whose team improved to 7-4. "We struggled early on serve receive but we cleaned it up."

"I can't say it's our fault," said Prospect coach Mike Riedy of the Bison comeback, "it's more the fault of Buffalo Grove -- for playing such good defense.

"They let nothing hit the floor. That frustrated our hitters, and their solution was to swing harder. That didn't cut it with the type of defense BG was playing."

Prospect took a late lead in Game 1 but extraordinary defense from BG libero Matt Bronson helped bring the Bison into a 23-23 tie.

"He gets to balls that 99 percent of liberos wouldn't have a chance at," said Aiello of the senior. "And he not only gets to them, (after he does) he gives our offense a chance."

A Kevin Reed kill and an ace by Scott Pickle (16 kills) gave Game 1 to the Knights, but BG battled back and won Game 2 when Tom Angerame (52-of-53 setting, 28 assists) set a perfect ball for a Falknor kill.

"In the first game we made a lot of serve receive errors," said Falknor. "Once we calmed down and relaxed we were able to play a lot cleaner."

BG built a big Game 3 advantage behind Ascher and JIm Wizniak (4 blocks in the middle).

Prospect was able to shake off a string of hitting errors and rally to within 24-19 when James Hoffman (8 kills) spiked one, but the Bronson-to-Angerame-to-Ascher combination closed out the match.

Pickle was outstanding on serve receive (24-of-25) as well as hitting for Prospect, while Joe Colmone served 2 aces and Reed (7 kills) and Nick Carlson (6 kills) contributed to the Knights' attack.

Bronson finished 12-of-14 passing and 15-of-16 on serve receive for BG, which got a leg up in the race for the division title.

"We might have had a little case of the jitters," said Bronson of dropping game 1. "This was the first conference match, and we knew Prospect was going to come out strong.

"Once we shook that off, in the second and third game they couldn't stop us offensively. We picked it up on serve receive, and we've got a lot of great passers out there."

Palatine d. Fremd: Palatine didn't arrive at Fremd with the emotion one would expect for a cross-town rivalry and Mid-Suburban West boys volleyball opener.

But the Pirates left with a lot of fire Tuesday night as they came back for an 18-25, 25-21, 25-19 victory.

"I thought we were completely dead as far as energy in the first game," said Palatine senior Ron Lampen. "We made a point to come out with a lot more intensity and energy and that's what helped us turn it around."

Lampen (18-for-20 hitting, 9 kills, 5 blocks) was right in the middle of putting Palatine (5-4) in control of Game 3. He had 2 blocks and 3 kills in an 8-point run that erased a 10-8 Fremd (3-4) lead.

The Vikings would get no closer than 3 points three times -- the last at 19-16.

"Ronny is probably one of the most emotional guys we've got on the team," said Palatine coach Frank Stark. "When things are going great for him, it's really hard to stop him."

Stark said it was "a little shocking" the way Palatine came out in the first game. Libero Eric Ginter rolled his ankle in Monday's practice and that injury to libero Eric Ginter forced defensive specialist Chris Brown into that role

And front row senior Josh Graham (22-for-24, 6 kills; 15-for-16 serving) played more of an all-around role and had an ace in the decisive run.

"Brown did a great job -- his serve receive and defense was phenomenal," Stark said. "Graham did a great job on defense."

Mark Danczuk and Josh Rustman also had 6 kills apiece as setter B.J. Boldog was 86-for-87 with 25 assists.

"Our serve receive was definitely the big thing and our setter set much better (in the third game) than the first two games," Lampen said. "It definitely help having a nice set and you can do whatever you want with it."

Fremd was also shorthanded but coach Curt Pinley refused to use that as an excuse. It led 14-13 in Game 2 on 1 of 7 kills by Cal Nolan into a double-block.

And the Vikings appeared to gain some momentum in Game 3 when senior Dan Brophy (9 kills, 5 digs) was falling away near the net and cut in a cross-court kill to start a 4-point run for a 10-8 lead.

"Palatine's a real strong team and a very emotional team," Pinley said. "When they get on an emotional roll it's very difficult to stop them.

"Game 1 we played very well and very consistent and we didn't give them any points. They had to earn all of them. But we didn't do that in Game 2 and Game 3."

Lampen provided the emphatic finish for the Pirates with a powerful match-point kill.

"It was an emotional roller-coaster we rode up on Game 1," Pinley said, "and just came crashing down in Game 2 and Game 3."

-- Marty Maciaszek

Hoffman d. Barrington: A 10-point loss in the first game didn't bode well for Hoffman Estates in its opener with four-time defending MSL West champion Barrington.

But Hoffman rallied for a 15-25, 25-20, 25-21 upset of the Broncos (1-2) as Max Martin had 16 kills, 13 digs and 3 blocks.

Tyler Davis had 8 kills and was 18-for-18 serving. Priyesh Patel and Steve Anderson combined for 51-for-52 setting with 26 assists.

Elk Grove d. Wheeling: Bryan Skwirut had 10 kills and 9 digs as Elk Grove (8-0) held off Wheeling 25-16, 21-25, 25-17 in their MSL East opener. Eric Freidenfelds had 8 kills and 9 digs and Jon Condon was 61-for-61 setting with 26 assists, had 4 aces and 12 digs.

Chris Schaeffer had 6 kills and Paul Desmond and Tom Devitt had 5 kills apiece for Wheeling (3-7).

Conant d. Schaumburg: Peter Lauterbach had 10 kills, David Kim had 8 digs and setters Ryan Schraub and Drew Fisher were 48-for-48 with 24 assists for Conant (9-3) in the MSL West opener.

Kyle Aragon had 8 kills for Schaumburg.

Hersey d. Meadows: Griffin Dwyer had 8 kills, Kevin Cayton had 11 digs and setter Chris Hoffman was 43-for-43 with 15 assists for Hersey (2-5) in the MSL East. Ryan Kedzie, Matt Vinezeano and Tyler Vinezeano had 6 kills apiece for Meadows (3-3).

Glenbrook N. d. Maine W.: Frank Pulvino and Stewart Turner-Jackson had 2 kills apiece for Maine West (3-5, 0-1) in the Central Suburban North loss.