Vernon Hills rallies past Mundelein
Justin Opitz's oops moment was innocuous.
The overall performance of Opitz and his Vernon Hills volleyball teammates, especially when they were thoroughly outplaying Mundelein in the latter two games, drew oohs and aahs.
On a night when the host Mustangs held their LIVE STRONG charity fundraiser in support of cancer awareness and showed their support by wearing yellow jerseys and socks, Vernon Hills played the strongest.
Led by a combined 32 kills from Pat Stone, Thomas Robinson and Garrett Kubacki, the Cougars rallied for a 21-25, 25-15, 25-14 win to take over sole possession of first place in the North Suburban Conference.
Vernon Hills (25-2, 8-0), which is seeking its third straight NSC title, visits Lakes tonight and concludes conference play next Wednesday at home against Lake Forest. Mundelein (24-3, 7-1) plays at Lake Forest tonight and hosts Antioch next Wednesday.
The conference-title hopes for Mundelein's senior-dominated team might be dashed, but the Mustangs know the season is far from over.
Buffalo Grove and Mundelein are seeded 1-2, respectively, in the Palatine sectional. Vernon Hills is the No. 3 seed.
"It was definitely a goal to win conference," said middle Patrick Lentz, who led the Mustangs with 10 kills. "But we're No. 2 (seed) in sectionals and are looking to play (Vernon Hills) for revenge in the semifinals of sectionals. We're just looking to finish out strong this year."
Andrew Roscoe's rocket jump serves, which included an ace, helped give Mundelein momentum late in Game 1, and then the Mustangs received a break.
With Vernon Hills within 22-21 after a Robinson block, Opitz went back to serve. But he bounced the ball off his right foot, and by the time he retrieved the ball, his allotted time to serve had expired. Mundelein got the point and the ball.
Back-to-back blocks by Jack Boich (6 blocks) then gave the Mustangs the game.
Cougars coach Chris Curry said he "never once, never ever" had seen happen what Opitz did.
"That was probably the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in terms of volleyball," Opitz said.
Curry actually used the misfortune to help inspire his team heading into Game 2.
"We talked about it (after Game 1)," Curry said. "Calls didn't go our way. That's going to happen. We said, 'How often is Opitz going to hit his right foot with his serve again?' It's never happened. Everything is on our side."
Opitz certainly made amends. He kept Mundelein guessing by effectively setting different hitters, whether it was Stone (13 kills), Robinson (10), Kubacki (9), Martin Niemczewski (5) or Mike Robinson (3).
"We were really mixing up the offense," said Opitz, who set 85 of 85 with 37 assists. "I was using all of my hitters. That really helped us out at the end."
Niemczewski, a 6-foot-5 sophomore who was called up to the varsity last weekend, provided a huge lift for the visitors, especially in Game 2. Mundelein was within 12-10 before three straight unforced errors gave Vernon Hills ample momentum to finish out the game.
"Our passing just broke down," Lentz said. "It was like a chain reaction of mistakes that just got in our heads."
Consecutive kills by Stone, who was unstoppable most of the night, ended the middle game. In Game 3, a Kubacki kill snapped a 5-5 tie and Mundelein never recovered.
"It's good that it went three, and we knew it was going to be a tight match," Mustangs coach George Dressen Jr. said. "But I don't think anybody was expecting us to play the way we did in Game 2 and Game 3. We never got anything going. The main reason was our serve-receive, which is normally pretty crisp and right on the money and will allow us to run our offense, just had trouble."
In Game 3, Dressen made what he called some "major adjustments," including subbing more frequently and moving Mitchell Baumgartner (5 kills, 2 blocks) upfront to help set and generate more offense. Little worked, however.
In the end, Vernon Hills showed its resolve after losing the opening game.
"I was not at all surprised by the way the match went because we have had real difficulty getting into our offensive sets early," Curry said. "I don't know what all it is, but we don't serve as aggressively early. I got to change warmups or something.
"We weren't passing real well and a lot of that was Mundelein, because they were tipping and rolling and off-speeding. It was taking our defense a while to recognize when it was coming."