Liederbach points way for Carmel volleyball

Erik Liederbach looked up at the gold banners hanging in Carmel Catholic's gym, pointed at them, and noted how hard he and fellow senior Brandt Bernat have worked in hopes of earning one.

If hard work is all it takes, don't be surprised if Liederbach and his volleyball teammates capture a third straight East Suburban Catholic Conference championship.

Liederbach is no stranger to effort. He plans to study pre-med at the University of California Santa Cruz, where the 6-foot-3 hitter also intends to play Division III volleyball.

Carmel began defense of its ESCC crown Tuesday night with a 25-17, 25-20 win over Marian Catholic in Mundelein. The Corsairs have shared the conference title the last two years with Marist.

"The top teams in the ESCC are very, very good," said Liederbach, who pounded a team-best 10 kills. "They have good players, but we match up very nicely against a lot of them."

Added Bernat of a potential '3-peat': "We think we can do it again."

More performances like the one they put forth against Marian Catholic (1-2 ESCC) will help the Corsairs. The win improved their overall record to just 4-8. A senior-dominated squad last season, they play only three seniors - Liederbach, Bernat and setter Sean Lyman.

"We've been struggling early on," second-year coach Kevin Nylen said. "We struggled this past weekend at Lake County, and we're trying to find an identity. We're young.

"We've really gone back to basics and really tried to emphasize things we took for granted last year because we had all of those seniors."

A kill by 6-5 Perry Aden (6 kills, 3 blocks) broke a 10-10 tie in Game 1 and Carmel had the lead for good, although the visiting Spartans kept it close.

Marian Catholic then got on a roll midway through the second game. Sparked by 6-3 middle Keith Haines and outside hitter John Cioffi, the Spartans built an 18-15 lead when Nylen burned a timeout.

"We talk about execution, and for a long time we were passing well," Nylen said. "And then we didn't. It was just a matter of playing within ourselves and getting that pass that we needed. We're definitely a team of momentum, and when we lose it, we lose it hard. And when we get it, we can get the runs that we need."

The emotional Liederbach helped give the momentum back to Carmel with a pair of thunderous kills that had him energized. On both occasions, he leaned back, knees bent, and pumped his arms.

"He's a motivational guy," Bernat said.

"It's another aspect that I can bring to the team - getting other guys pumped up," Liederbach said.

Carmel - which also got 12 assists from Peter Zizzo and 10 from Lyman - finally won it on a spectacular kill by Bernat. The 5-9 libero was falling backward when he somehow punched the ball one-handed over the net and had it skip off a pair of Marian Catholic players.

"I always try to get a touch on every ball," said Bernat, who made hustle plays all night. "I got a touch on it, it went over and I made the kill."