Bartlett's smarts help beat Waubonsie Valley

Sometimes in volleyball it never hurts to use your head.

Thursday evening in Aurora, the Bartlett boys volleyball players relied on their smarts as much as their skills, defeating Waubonsie Valley 25-18, 25-20 in Upstate Eight Conference action.

The Hawks (6-2, 2-0) seemed to have an easier time in the first game than the score indicated, seizing an early 4-3 lead they never relinquished.

The real excitement came in Game 2, as Bartlett rallied back from a 20-18 deficit, closing out the Warriors with a 6-kill flurry to grab a 24-20 lead. A block on an attempted Waubonsie Valley kill sealed the deal for the visitors.

"Our team's coming together with our passing and our hitting. Our hitting just came out of nowhere," Bartlett senior Chris Guimon said. "It's really stepped up."

Bartlett hitters had their way throughout both games, striking a total of 26 kills in the match.

According to Hawks coach John Breines, Bartlett's cerebral attention to strategy helped set the stage for their front line.

"We had them in a bad rotation. We saw where they have one big hitter that they mainly go to, and earlier in the match we made some errors in that rotation and let them out of it," Breines said. "We did a much better job of serving in when they were in that rotation.

"We ended up with some free balls, and we've got some big hitters when we get free balls and run our offense."

Thursday's victory kept the Hawks' winning ways intact heading into this weekend's Streamwood Invite. With teams such as Neuqua Valley and St. Francis entered in the tournament, Breines feels the weekend will provide a good barometer of just how good the Hawks can be.

"It'll give us a good gauge as to exactly where we're at," he said. "If we can do real well in this tournament and take out Neuqua and St. Francis, what does that say? I think we can be right there with them."

Waubonsie Valley (7-7, 2-1) struggled all game with unforced errors and lapses in communication. According to coach Alan Lagger, the Warriors must improve their cohesiveness as a single unit in order to make a serious run at the Upstate Eight crown.

"They scored 50 points against us, and by our calculations, out of 50 points they only scored 5," Lagger said. "Forty-five of the points came off of our errors, whether we missed a serve, missed a hit, bad set. Those all happened because of our errors."