WW South steps up in Game 3 win
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier called time out just after his Tigers tied a gritty Glenbard East squad 23-23 in Game 3 of Thursday night's DuPage Valley Conference showdown.
During that timeout Schreier gave outside hitter Bodie Ebergeny his marching orders:
"(Schreier) said, 'We're gonna end up going through you,' " Ebergeny said.
Ebergeny responded with two kills - one that put the Tigers up 24-23, and another that broke a 24-24 deadlock. The Tigers finally won Game 3 on a Rams hitting error to preserve a hard-fought 25-22, 21-25, 26-24 victory.
"Eric Wilkins gave me a bunch of good sets, and our passes were spot-on," said Ebergeny, who recorded 12 kills and 6 digs. "Everything was great.
"It came down to the end there. (Eric) Luhrsen had a bunch of big kills today. He was really on fire; they couldn't stop him, really."
Luhrsen registered 20 kills, including 7 in the Tigers' Game 1 win, and 8 in Game 3. Meanwhile, Eric Wilkins piled up 40 assists and 8 digs.
"I thought we came out pretty well in Game 1 especially," Schreier said of the Tigers (15-4, 8-0), who stormed out to a 13-5 lead. "(Playing at Glenbard East) has kind of been a quote-unquote house of horrors. I don't think we've won here in a while. I think we needed to prove to ourselves that we can go ahead and win here.
"With sectionals coming through here, we know that it's only going to get tougher. We need to make sure that we have all of our bases covered and we're executing. I thought we did a fairly good job of that tonight."
The Rams showed resiliency and chipped away until they crept to within one point, 19-18, on a Tigers hitting error. However, Glenbard East wouldn't get any closer the rest of the game.
Game 2 turned out to be a see-saw battle, with six ties and two lead changes. But Glenbard East pulled away late in the game and opened up a 5-point advantage at one point, 24-19, on a kill by senior outside hitter Matt Hartigan.
"The first game we came out a little bit slow, and we battled back, which was nice to see because they got off to a pretty good lead," said Glenbard East coach Marci Maier. "It was nice to see that we battled back and carried some of that momentum into the second game.
"We got ahead in the second game and we were able to finish and get separation. What I really liked seeing was that we got down in the third game, but this time we came back and it was anybody's ballgame at the end."
Mike Heim finished with 20 assists for the Rams (14-5, 5-3), while Peter Wingard added 13 digs. Andrew Achenbaugh and Nick Eagan chipped in with 8 and 6 kills, respectively.
The Tigers, who have now won eight straight contests, also got 8 digs and 2 aces from Dave Priest.
"I challenged them during our last timeout (of Game 3) that you need to step up," Schreier said. "That's one of the questions about us is the fact that, 'Are we going to step up? Are we going to make things happen at the end?' Because we've been in that situation against Sandburg, against Marist, all quality programs just like this and we lost. Now we were able to turn the tables, and we were able to get one. So that was good to see."