Glenbard East captures 1st DVC crown
Glenbard East passed its DuPage Valley Conference test on Thursday, but it would have failed kindergarten.
The Rams just refused to share with the other students.
The other students were from host Naperville Central, which with a victory would have grabbed a share of the DuPage Valley Conference with the Rams.
But Glenbard East would have none of that, winning its first boys volleyball conference title with a 25-13, 18-25, 25-23 win over the Redhawks.
"We didn't want to share our title because this was our first one," said Tim Lovik of Glenbard East. "We just wanted to win that match."
While the Rams (32-3, 13-1) came out strong, dominating that first game with an outstanding blocking performance at the net, everything fell apart late in the second game.
Leading 17-15, the Rams were outscored 10-1 as they committed 8 errors (15 in the game) as the Redhawks (28-7, 11-3), won the game and kept their championship hopes alive.
"Some people don't understand momentum and how important it is in volleyball," said Glenbard East coach Marci Maier. "You can be so dominating and so fantastic in Game 1 and then the other team gets on a roll and takes Game 2. Then you're in a dogfight in the third game."
There were 8 ties and 5 lead changes in the third game, but the Rams finally took the lead for good when their two 6-foot-5 setters, Dan Mader and Mark Jones, combined for the kill that made it 20-19.
Mader, who led with 9 kills 7 blocks and 13 assists, put away the cross-court smash for match point.
"We're pretty excited winning our first DVC title," Maier said. "Winning conference was another team goal for us, and I'm happy for the players that they were able to attain that this evening. This is the most well-rounded team we've had. We have six guys who can put the ball down."
Lovik had 8 kills, and Jones had 7 kills and 11 assists. Mark Kunberger led the Rams with 13 digs, and Peter Dabrowski had 6 blocks.
Naperville Central coach Bryan Johnwick, was pleased with the challenge his team put up in Thursday's match.
"We've consistently come out slow against strong teams and it takes us a little while to get into the match," Johnwick said. "However, I'm very happy with how we played in the second and third games. Our defense was very strong. We were digging a lot of balls all over the court."
He was also happy with the Redhawks' performance throughout the season, going from a 16-19 record in 2007 to 28-7 and improving from fifth to second in the conference in his first year at the helm.
"I'm really proud of the way the boys played their hearts out this year," Johnwick said.
In Thursday's match Matt Yanz registered 9 kills and 3 blocks for the Redhawks, while Victor Lei had 23 assists, as well as 10 digs and 4 blocks, both season highs. Hunter Lee dug up 18 balls, Joe Thomas had 7 kills and Matt Schmitz added 5.