Palatine's improvement continues
With a fairly young team in his first season as the Palatine varsity boys volleyball coach, Frank Stark is just looking for improvement from match to match.
He got to watch five matches Saturday and the rookie coach liked what he saw after the Pirates finished second to favorite Hinsdale Central in the Schaumburg tournament.
The Red Devils (13-2) won the title match 25-21, 17-25, 25-21 after the Pirates had defeated fourth-place Schaumburg 25-22, 25-21 in the semifinals.
"We're trying to build with every single match we play, win or lose," said Stark, whose club is 9-6 (2-0 in the Mid-Suburban West) and has won five of its last 7 matches. "I think these guys are finally figuring out the energy and emotion they need on the court. I love watching them play. Our guys have a lot of heart."
One of those guys is 6-foot-10 senior middle hitter Josh Rustman (28 kills, 14 blocks for the tourney), who Stark said plans to play basketball at Indiana State.
Rustman was 24-of-24 attacking with 12 kills against Hinsdale Central.
"He was just phenomenal," Stark said. "Honestly, we couldn't get him the ball enough."
Getting him the ball was junior setter B.J. Boldog (72 assists). Boldog's other favorite targets were Ronny Lampen (27 kills), Zach Compton (13), Bart Danczuk (10) and Josh Graham (7).
Lampen also collected 16 blocks in the tourney while libero Erik Ginter, Adam Barnum and Adam Dziubinski keyed the back row.
"Our serve receive did such a nice job that we were able to get all our hitters involved," Stark said.
Top hitters for Schaumburg (10-9) were Kyle Aragon (30 kills), Alex Christy (18) and Mitch Wiskichen (16), who is now running a 6-2 offense with Neal Goyke.
Kyle Boyer played a key role in the back row with 23 digs, including 10 against Fremd.
"When we play well, we can play with anyone," said Wiskichen (39 assists), a senior who plans to play volleyball at Lakeland College in Wisconsin. "When we get in a rut, we get stuck in it.
"This was a good tournament for us. We played a lot of good teams. It's still early in the season and we're trying to work the bugs out."
Christy, also a senior, had a team-high 7 kills against Palatine.
"I saw a lot of things I liked in this tournament," said Christy, who plans to study engineering at Iowa State. "I learned a lot about myself. I used to be a middle hitter and now I'm outside. I got a taste to see what it was like against the good teams. This was a good learning experience."
Saxons coach Kyle Reid has put sophomore Glen Frost in the middle, allowing Christy to move outside.
"He (Frost) has made great strides as a youngster," Reid said. "So that's made the transition a little earlier."
Schaumburg topped MSL West rival Fremd 25-23, 25-21 in pool play. Aragon had 10 kills in that match.
"We'll have a nice rematch with them on Tuesday," Reid said.
Hinsdale Central defeated Schaumburg 25-23, 23-25, 15-7.
"They (Hinsdale Central) have no weaknesses," Stark said. "They have no guys you can pick on."
"All of Hinsdale Central players are very good athletes," Reid added. 'They control the ball very well and their setter mixes it up very well."