Wheaton Warrenville South places second in tournament

Wheaton Warrenville South's boys volleyball team again has its eyes on the big picture.

DeSmet of St. Louis defeated the host Tigers in the finals of The Tiger Classic, and while coach Bill Schreier didn't take the loss lightly, he regards the tournament as a step in the season-long process that often results in Wheaton Warrenville winning the state championship, as it has done the past two years.

DeSmet came out with a lot of energy, kept the Tigers (9-2) on the defensive throughout the final match and went back to Missouri with a 25-17, 25-19 victory and the tournament championship.

Buffalo Grove defeated St. Rita for third place.

DeSmet outside hitter Brett Strawhun was voted the tournament's Most Valuable Player and Chris Boldt was named to the all-tournament team.

Locals on the all-tournament team were Wheaton Warrenville South's Neill Nystrom and Joe Kelly and Naperville Central's Victor Lei.

"This tournament is building up to where we're going," said Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier. "Our focus is a little bit bigger. It's on the state tournament and that's a learning curve. Every single step is a movement along that track."

That isn't taking anything away from DeSmet, which outplayed the Tigers in both games of the finals.

"DeSmet is a good team," Schreier said. "And they're hot right now. They served aggressively and we couldn't get them out of system. Our intensity level left a little to be desired."

Wheaton Warrenville South outside hitter Dan Mueller also complimented the tournament champions.

"They had something to prove and they came out firing," Mueller said. "They're a great team. They play hard and they swing fast. We got caught back on our heels early in the match."

Mueller thought the Tigers were affected by the pattern set in their earlier match when they defeated St. Rita 25-22, 25-19 in the semifinals.

"We came out strong today in our first match against Glenbrook North," Mueller said. "And then St. Rita kind of took the air out of the ball and we slowed down. That carried over to the last match. We never got it going."

A bright spot in the finals was the diversity of the Tigers attack. Nystrom, Eric Luhrsen, Neal Whittington and Mueller each had 4 kills. Kelly distributed 17 assists.

Chris Lischke led DeSmet with 10 kills and 3 blocks.

The quarterfinals defeat of Glenbrook North (25-17, 25-19) gave the Tigers a measure of revenge for last Saturday's loss in the finals of the Bison Battle at Buffalo Grove.

"We knew we had to come out here and block well," Kelly said. "We fell short there last Saturday. We had to focus on the point of attack at the net. Today, we started with a couple of blocks and that set the tone. Last week Glenbrook North did what they had to do to beat us. This week we knew what we had to do. When they pushed us, we pushed right back."

Naperville Central finished eighth in the tournament and Naperville North was 13th. Others from DuPage County included Lake Park 14th, Wheaton North 20th, York 21st and Waubonsie Valley 22nd.