Segneri deals with the pain, Spartans gain win over Benet

St. Francis setter Mike Segneri was day to day with an ankle injury, but with a big match against visiting arch-rival Benet, the Spartans senior decided that Wednesday was the day.

So with a heavily wrapped and braced ankle, Segneri delivered a match full of perfect sets to his hitters to lead the Spartans to a 25-22, 25-20 victory over the Redwings.

"It hurts, but I'm not thinking about it when I'm out there," said Segneri, who sprained his ankle in the first match at last Saturday's Springfest and then sat out the rest of the tournament. "When I'm running an offense, I'm not focused on the pain."

The Spartans hitters started slowly as they readjusted to Segneri's sets after working with backup Mark Roberts, who did a great job leading St. Francis to a 4-1 record at the Glenbard East tournament.

"We have several juniors on the front line," said Spartans coach Mike Lynch. "And they were a little tentative switching their timing to Mike's sets."

After a slow start that saw Benet (11-6) leading most of the first game until the 15th point, the Spartans (8-1) made their adjustments, and, as they have done often thus far this season, rode a balanced attack to victory.

Dave Metzler led them with 6 kills, followed closely by Dan McGuire and Steve Howe put down 5 apiece. Segneri and Joe Mordell each had with 4 and Joe Pfeiffer chipped in 3 in the kind of scoring that has become the hallmark of this year's team.

Segneri finished with 20 assists.

"It picks up your confidence as a hitter to have Mike in the game," Metzler said. "We were a little anxious at first because of the big rivalry with Benet. But having Segneri out there calmed us down. We played under control."

After taking the first game lead at 16-15, the Spartans never trailed again.

"Segneri is friends with a lot of the Benet kids," Lynch said. "He didn't want to lose to them his senior year."

Lynch has been impressed by the progress these Spartans have made after losing many of last year's mainstays to graduation.

"Tonight was another building block," Lynch said. "I liked the fact that they worked through a sloppy first game and had a good second game. We played 11 kids tonight, because we're so young and we're seeing what everyone can do. Our juniors are getting stronger every day."

Benet was led by Kevin Massuar's 8 kills and 6 digs. Billy Aukstik was also outstanding with 14 digs.

"We came out enthusiastic and aggressive and played well in the first game," said Benet coach Amy Van Eekeren. "But in the second game we came out slowly and quietly. We can't do that. We weren't totally playing as a team and our block wasn't there quite a bit."