Palatine makes most of tournament title opportunity

The Palatine boys volleyball team wasn't only looking for an opportunity to compete for the championship of its own invitational Saturday.

The Pirates also wanted a little payback.

And after dispatching Stevenson in the semifinals of the tourney to reach the title match, there was no doubt who the Pirates wanted to face for the crown.

"We were actually cheering for Prospect to beat Fremd (in the other semifinal)," said Palatine coach Frank Stark, whose team had lost to the Knights earlier in the tournament in pool play. "We wanted to erase the memory of that loss."

Palatine got its chance when the Knights defeated the Vikings.

And then the Pirates made the most of it, rallying to defeat Mid-Suburban League rival Prospect 28-30, 25-18, 25-13 to win their own invite for the first time since 2004.

The Patriots took third place with a 25-18, 25-14 win over Fremd; West Aurora defeated Libertyville for the consolation championship and Niles West prevailed over Maine West for the seventh-place trophy.

"We wanted to win this badly," said Jordan Feldman, one of several Palatine sophomores who played well Saturday, of beating Prospect. "Our schools have quite a rivalry."

Pirates senior Adam Hebein led a strong defensive effort with 18 digs in the title match while senior Nat Pearson hammered 18 kills on 30-of-36 hitting.

"We had an emotional win over Stevenson (in the semifinals)," said a jubilant Pearson, "and that carried over into the match against Prospect.

"We made the most errors we had made this season in the first game. We knew if we could limit our errors the rest of the way we had a great chance to win the match."

Prospect, which was led by senior setter Kevin Wolter (106 assists for the tourney) and senior libero Sean Baltowski (54 digs), suffered its only loss of the day in the title match after four straight wins.

"Overall I thought we played very well," said Prospect coach Mike Riedy, "especially being down a couple of players today."

"But that's not an excuse - Palatine played pheonomenal defense in the second and third games. They completely shut down our attack."

Stevenson went 4-1 overall in the tournament and senior outside hitter John Baader (27 kills overall) said the Patriots are pleased with their progress this season.

"This is a new year and we have a lot of new players," said Baader of the youthful Stevenson squad. "To play this well today shows that we have great promise, and we took what we learned in our loss to Palatine, fixed the problems and used that knowledge against Fremd."

Baader and teammate Zachary Kravits were voted to the all-tournament team, as were Palatine's Pearson and Justin Ginter, Brian Allen and Steve Maring of Fremd, and Wolter and Baltowski of Prospect.

Maine West (2-12) struggled without a win in the invite but Ron Gajewski's strong effort saw the senior also make the all-tourney team.

"We've been playing well at times," said Gajewski, who had 30 kills and 4 aces, "but we've got to put it together for an entire match. We have to make sure not to get down on ourselves and play like we know how to play."

Ginter (81-of-82 setting with 25 assists in the championship match) starred on the day for the champions. Palatine sophomore Eric Gabbard, playing in only his second varsity match, recorded 15 digs against Prospect.

"This was an exciting and emotional day for us," said Stark. "To play as well as we did against Stevenson and then come back and do the same against Prospect was pretty special.

"We had a lot of guys who stepped up today."