Downers South ends Glenbard East's 6-year winning streak

For a young team the host Glenbard East Rams showed a lot of poise in fighting back from the first-set 25-7 thumping inflicted by Downers Grove South in Saturday's championship match at the Springfest Invitational.

The Rams evened the match at 1-1, winning 25-18 only to lose the third set 25-20, which gave the Mustangs (9-1) the tournament championship.

The loss breaks the Rams' six-year streak of Springfest championships.

"Most young teams would have just folded after that first set," said Glenbard East coach Marci Maier. "To win a set after losing like that, you have to make adjustments and our young guys made those adjustments and that helped us get on a roll."

Part of the reason for the Rams' slow start in the championship match was the tough test they faced against St. Francis in the semifinals.

The Rams defeated the Spartans 29-27, 20-25, 25-23.

"We spent a great deal of energy in that match against St. Francis," Maier said. "We got off to a slow start against Downers and didn't recover until the second game."

The Rams were led by Andrew Achenbaugh, who had 12 kills and 8 digs, Kevin Farrell, with 28 assists and 6 blocks and Alex Hurlburt who had 6 kills and 6 blocks. Peter Wingard and Matt Finder came up with 7 digs each.

For the Mustangs the victory represented the achievement of the first several preseason goals they set at the beginning of the season.

"One of our goals was to win a tournament this year, and we've taken care of that early," said Downers Grove South coach Tony Nevrly. "We came out of the chute quickly and got them down 9-0."

Nevrly saw the Mustangs' passing game as the key to the victory.

"We've been working on our passing since the preseason and I like our ability to pass the ball," Nevrly said. "When you pass well you can run all kinds of different things. That opened up a lot of options."

He praised the work of junior middle hitters Kevin O'Halloran and Sam Kull for the block they put up all night against the Rams.

"This was a great victory for our program," O'Halloran said. "Our passing, our blocking, our hitting, we were great all across the board in the first game. We lost our focus a little in Game 2 but then we just brought back the energy and enthusiasm to win the match."

Buddy Steinhaus had 10 kills and 11 digs for the Mustangs. O'Halloran finished with 8 kills and 5 blocks, and Kull came in with 5 kills and 3 blocks for the match. Libero Tony Coglianese led in digs with 12.

St. Francis defeated Neuqua Valley in the third-place game 25-23, 30-28.

West Aurora finished fifth, Glenbard West was seventh and Benet was 10th.