Elk Grove recaptures its spark at the perfect time

The excitement is back.

Third-seed Elk Grove, which lost a bit of focus late in the season after falling out of the Mid-Suburban East title race, rebounded to score a resounding 25-16, 25-10 boys volleyball regional semifinal victory over No. 14 St. Charles East.

"We kind of fell off the map," said senior John Condon of the Grens, who lost 4 of their final 7 regular-season matches but still finished second in the East behind Buffalo Grove. "We came out excited tonight."

Condon had 23 assists while senior Bryan Skwirut led the way on attack with 8 kills for the regional host Grenadiers, the No. 3 seed in the St. Francis sectional.

"It's always great to play in front of your home fans," said senior outside hitter Eric Freidenfelds.

Chris Brucher led St. Charles East (12-23) with 4 kills.

"We knew Elk Grove would be tough with the home court advantage," said St. Charles East coach Stephanie Gooden. "They've got a roster full of club players, while we only have one. We've got a good, athletic team, but we're a young team, with not a lot of game experience."

St. Charles East closed to within 17-13 in Game 1 before Elk Grove closed out on a 8-3 run, then the Grens scored 10 of the first 12 points of Game 2 led by 2 of Robin Philip's 3 aces.

"We served well," said Elk Grove coach Dan Windholz. "Not a lot of aces, but our serving kept them back on their heels and put them in the position to have to make tough passes."

Nick Mortensen added 6 kills for Elk Grove (22-8), while Jonathan Tompary added 4 kills and 2 blocks.

"For awhile (at the end of the season), we were going through the motions," said Windholz. "We lost some of our excitement and the momentum we had built up early in the season, including 2 tournament wins."

"We have the mindset," said Condon, "that from now on it's lose and go home. We've got our focus back."

• A stirring Schaumburg rally went for naught in a 25-16, 25-23 loss to Glenbard North at the Elk Grove.

The No. 11 Saxons struggled through Game 1 and trailed 18-10 in Game 2 before coming alive.

Schaumburg fought back to tie the second game at 22-22 and 23-23, but sixth-seeded Glenbard North scored the final 2 points.

"Glenbard North is just a good team," said Schaumburg coach Kyle Reid. "They took advantage of every mistake we made.

"We finally started playing volleyball in the second half of Game 2."

Schaumburg (17-18) senior middle Mike Wernert led the late charge and the last of his 8 kills tied it at 23-23.

"We were sitting back waiting for something to happen," said Glenbard North coach Dedra DeBenedetti. "I told the kids it was time to make a run."

A well-placed tip by Glenbard North's Tyler Gustafson gave the Panthers the lead, then Schaumburg was whistled for a back row attack on match point.

"I didn't exactly agree with the call," said Reid, "but it happens."

At WW South: St. Charles North set the tone early as it jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the first game, giving it much needed momentum throughout its match against Prospect.

The seventh-seeded North Stars needed every single one of those points in the first game as the start of the game was no indication of how close it would be in the end.

The North Stars (24-13) wound up winning 25-22, 25-23 to advance to play top-seeded host Wheaton Warrenville South today at 7 p.m.

WW South beat No. 16 Hoffman Estates 25-19, 25-9.

"That first game did not help matters when we fell behind early on," Prospect coach Mike Riedy said. "We dug ourselves a huge hole and we were able to dig ourselves out of it and make the first game very respectable. But during that process I think it took a lot out of us."

After blowing a big lead like that in the playoffs, it might make a team not so confident.

According to SCN outside hitter Rusty Lavaja, that was not the case with the North Stars.

"We were able to get the jitters out in the first game," Lavaja said. "We should be a bit more relaxed from here on out. We know that if we play to our potential and play our game we can beat anyone in state."

The ninth-seeded Knights (22-12) led for much of the second game until the 21-20 mark when Rusty Lavaja put a giant kill down in the middle of the court to grab a lead SCN would not give up the rest of the match.

That kill was followed up with a block kill by the North Stars' Brett Ellis.

Riedy said the blocks were a big part of the success for the North Stars.

"It was frustrating to some of our players by not being able to put balls down that they usually would," Riedy said. "(Scott) Pickle had an extremely hard time having his balls find the floor tonight. Their defense played out of their minds. You have to take your hat off to them."

The North Stars were led by Lavaja and his 9 kills. Kegan Haeseli finished the match with a match-high 16 assists and 3 aces in the win.

Kevin Reed had a team-high 8 kills while Joe Colmone had a match-high 10 digs in the loss.

At West Chicago: Hall of Fame coach Peggy Scholten watched her Conant Cougars (26-9) take a 25-14, 26-28, 25-19 triumph over the host school of the West Chicago regional semifinal.

The Cougars will face Lake Park for the title today.

Leading the attack for the MSL West second-place squad was Dan Aloisio (9 kills), Peter Lauterbach (9), Ken Ropiak (7) and Ryan Schraub (6).

Conant received 16 assists from Schraub and 13 from Drew Fisher.

At Rolling Meadows: Bartlett eliminated the host Mustangs 25-22, 25-18.

Sebastian Matei led Meadows with 6 kills while Blake Olson ands Weston Genovese each had five. Nick Marek handed out 11 assists and Brian Bourn had 7.

Bartlett plays St. Francis for the title at 7 p.m. today.

At Highland Park: Fremd advanced to today's 7 p.m. championship against Deerfield with a 25-18, 25-13 triumph over Highland Park in the regional semifinal.

At Vernon Hills: Lake Forest ousted Wheeling (16-17) with a 25-12, 25-19 triumph in the semifinals of the Vernon Hills regional.

Leading the Wildcats were Tom Devitt (5 kills, 8-o-f8 serving), Joe Preston (2 kills, 5 digs) and Dan Hehn (2 kills, 14-of-18 serve receiving).

At Antioch: Carmel posted a 25-22, 25-18 victory over Hersey in the semifinals of the Antioch regional.

The Huskies were led by Griffin Dwyer (7 kills), Jack Welter (6), Mike Reiser (4) and Mike Mueller (2) while Chris Hoffman and Brad Peterson each had 8 assists.

At Evanston: Niles West eliminated Maine West 25-16, 25-16 in the Evanston regional semifinal.

The Warriors were led by Stewart Turner-Jackson's 3 kills and 6 assists from Brendan Joyce.

At Palatine: Mid-Suburban League champ Buffalo Grove (26-5) defeated Waukegan 25-6, 25-14 in the semifinals of the Palatine regional and will face Stevenson today for the title.

Joe Ascher had 11 kills for the Bison while Chris Falknor added 6. Tom Angerame was 31-of-31 setting with 18 assists while Joe Duda served 6 aces.