St. Francis claims title at Benet Invitational
St. Francis was just taking care of some unfinished business at this weekend's Benet Invitational.
The Spartans won the championship Saturday, knocking off the two teams that had beaten them last year: Neuqua Valley in the semifinals and Mundelein in the finals 25-23, 25-17.
The Spartans had lost to the Wildcats in last year's semifinals and then went on to lose to the Mustangs in the third-place match, so revenge was on their minds when they went into the semifinals and beat Neuqua for the third time this year.
And then the Spartans reached down and produced their best performance of the year to defeat Mundelein.
"This is a team on a mission," said St. Francis coach Mike Lynch. "We knew we had the weapons, the talent. But these guys believe that everyone on this team is an option every time. This is the most well-balanced team I've had in my 12 years here."
It started with libero Thomas Culligan's 20 digs and his refusal to let anything hit the floor and continued with Mark Roberts' precise setting that resulted in 35 assists.
"We knew the passing had to be there and it was phenomenal," Culligan said. "But all the hitters were great in that last match."
How's this for a balanced attack?
Dan McGuire led with 8 kills, followed by Joe Mordell, Jack Mordell and Dan McGuire, all with 7 and Joe Pfeiffer with 6 kills and 2 blocks.
"We were spreading the ball a lot more," Joe Mordell said. "We had been trying to pick it up the whole tourney and we were really close. Finally, in that last match we came out with a bang and the energy carried us."
"Our defense was incredible today," Lynch said. "Mundelein (22-2) has three strong hitters and we were digging balls that are usually kills. Culligan was diving all over the court, not just saving balls but putting them back in play. As Culligan goes, so go the Spartans."
Lynch thought the timing of the team's excellent tournament performance couldn't have been better, because the seeding meeting for sectionals is coming up this week, and the Spartans are hoping to get a good seed in a very strong sectional.
Mundelein was led by Patrick Lentz and Mitchell Baumgartner with 6 kills each and Chris Kelly with 17 digs.
"In that second game we had a little bit of a letdown with our blocking assignments at the net," said Mundelein coach George Dressen. "The St. Francis team was really powerful with their offense. With their ability and their ball movement, we just weren't able to put up the block fast enough to shut them down."
In the third-place match Neuqua Valley overcame a first-game loss to defeat Glenbard West 20-25, 25-22, 25-20.
Johnathan Rychly led the Wildcats with 9 kills, 10 digs and 4 blocks. Zach Gilligan was the dig leader with 14, John Storm was co-leader in kills with 9 and Alex Blackwell had 27 assists.