Bartlett turns back South Elgin

The Bartlett boys volleyball team trailed 2-1 in each game Tuesday night against South Elgin.

The deficit lasted for only one point in both games as the Hawks went on two big scoring runs and never trailed again in a 25-16, 25-19 Upstate Eight Conference victory in Bartlett.

"We came out really well, grabbed the momentum," Hawks coach Brandon Mueller said. "I thought we hit really well."

Bartlett (7-10, 2-2) erased the early deficit in Game 1 on a Storm service error. Then Zach Urgena served the next 11 points, including 10 scored by the Hawks for an 11-0 run. Urgena had 3 aces during the stretch.

A back-row kill by South Elgin's Andrew Gleason ended the run, but the Storm (7-10, 1-2) trailed 12-3.

"Coach had a talk with us before the game about coming out strong," said Bartlett senior Kris Kuehn, who finished with a match-high 9 kills. "We wanted to come with it."

South Elgin got no closer than 8 points the rest of the opening game. A kill from David Upp on the second game point gave the Hawks the win.

"We didn't give ourselves a chance to fight back," Storm coach Adam Plach. "Missing so many serves you don't get a chance to get those back and run points. We can sideout all we want. If we can't score points on our serve off our defense, we're not going to be able to fight back into games."

In the second game, a Brian Limanowski kill evened the score at 2-2. This time the Hawks' run was only 5-0, all on kills, to take a 6-2 lead. One of Bartlett's 13 service error ended the streak, but the Hawks maintain the lead throughout.

The Storm got within 2, 17-15, after a Akash Patel ace. Consecutive kills by Timothy LaBud, Upp and Kuehn increased the lead back to 5, 20-15. A net violation by South Elgin ended the match.

Limanowski added 6 kills for the Hawks. LaBud finished with 5 kills and 9 digs. Tim Rendall had 22 assists.

Gleason and Douglas Sawyer each had 3 kills to lead the Storm.