WW South responds, wins Bison Battle
Wheaton Warrenville South’s boys volleyball team didn’t face much adversity all day in the Bison Battle at Buffalo Grove on Saturday.
So when Glenbrook North took the second set and led early on in the third of the championship match, it was time for WW South to respond.
Playing their third match in a row and fifth of the day, the Tigers shook off fatigue and rallied to win the third set and take home the title 2-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-19).
“I was pleased with the effort at the end,” said WW South coach Bill Schreier. “I thought they really stepped up and made some plays. We knew that we were going to have to battle. This whole tournament is really good teams and so we knew that we would have to be on our ‘A’ game.”
The Tigers, who along with Glenbrook North went 4-0 in pool play and didn’t lose a set until the finals, went on a big run in the first set behind the powerful jump-serve of Thomas Jaeschke but the smaller Spartans out-executed the Tigers in the second.
The final set was about WW South’s front line as 6-8 Matt Callaway, 6-6 Tim Zyburt and the 6-6 Jaeschke proved difficult for Glenbrook North to hit around.
Tied at 11-11, a block and kill from Callaway, two kills from Jaeschke and another one from Zyburt gave the Tigers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Zyburt’s block ended the match.
“We were communicating really well on the blocks,” Jaeschke said. “We saw all their hitters and we did a really good job talking, and that’s a key in finishing matches.”
Callaway finished with 10 kills and 4 blocks, Jaeschke had 9 kills with 6 aces and Zyburt tallied 8 kills.
Glenbard East defeated the host Bison in the third-place match (25-21, 25-15) and went 4-1 on the day, with their only loss coming to the champion Tigers in pool play.
In the win over BG, Joey Farrell put down 9 kills while Matt Ploke and Tim Shenkin had 6 apiece. Matt Finder tallied 10 digs and Mike Heim and Shenkin did a good job distributing the ball all day.
“It’s a long day, but we’re happy with the performance,” said Glenbard East coach Marci Maier. “It’s a very tough field here and for us to come out 4-1, we’re happy with that. We would have liked to play a little bit better against Wheaton Warrenville South. We came into today having played only one match so this gives us an idea of what we need to work on.”
And for a BG squad that narrowly lost to Naperville North and Glenbrook North, fourth place isn’t the end of the world, especially against a stacked field with perennial powers.
“We’re not worried about having the greatest record at the beginning of the season,” said BG coach Matt Aiello. “None of the teams in this tournament care about their records at the beginning of the year. We know that it doesn’t matter, it’s about the end of the season.”
Naperville North, Carl Sandburg and Barrington also went 2-2 in pool play.