Fans energize Corsairs past Marist

The atmosphere in the Carmel Catholic gymnasium Tuesday was raucous.

The crowd's intensity for the Senior Night volleyball match against Marist was more like what you would anticipate for a key East Suburban Conference basketball game.

"I wasn't expecting the noise level to be like this," Marist coach Bob St. Leger said.

Carmel had key intangibles going for it, but Marist was equal to the challenge. After dropping the first game 25-23, Marist rallied for a 25-23, 25-18 victory.

As a result, Marist (25-5, 8-1) will share the conference title with Carmel (24-10, 8-1). If Carmel had won, the Corsairs would have had the league title to themselves.

"This was a hard one, but I told them the biggest thing to remember was that we're still conference champs," Carmel coach Kevin Nylen said. "One of our goals was to hang a banner and that's something we'll be doing."

Nylen, along with his team, said the crowd almost willed the Corsairs to a victory.

"The energy they brought was beyond words," Nylen said. "I'm almost speechless."

Added senior Joe Sponseller: "Without the crowd, we wouldn't have been as close as we were. Marist played an amazing game, and they handled everything we threw at them."

Carmel raced to a 6-1 lead in the first game only to see Marist fight back and take an 11-10 advantage. The rest of the game featured six ties and plenty of long rallies keyed by outstanding passing.

A kill by senior Zach Engels gave Carmel a 24-22 advantage. After a Marist point, the Corsairs won the game when the RedHawks served long.

Marist elevated its play in the second game, but Carmel hung in, and down the stretch the score was tied 23-23. Marist was able to string together two consecutive points to force a third game.

Carmel led 15-14 in the third game, only to see Marist rip off six consecutive points to take control.

"We made a couple of mistakes we don't normally make and we had to chase them," Nylen said.

Sponseller (10 kills), junior Erik Liederback (7 kills) and Engels (6 kills) paced Carmel's attack. Senior Josh Garwood and Liederback had 5 and 3 solo blocks, respectively. Seniors Mike Dietrich (17 assists) and Mike Geske (12) combined for 29 assists. Dietrich and senior Evan Linsner each contributed 5 digs.

"Both teams played their hearts out," Nylen said. "As a coach, you can't ask for anything more than that."

Carmel closes out the regular season against Libertyville on Thursday. The Corsairs will play a regional semifinal Tuesday.

"Hopefully, we got our last loss of the year out of our (system)," Sponseller said. "We'll learn from this and keep growing."