WW South stays balanced against Naperville North
Wheaton Warrenville South used a balanced offensive attack to stay undefeated.
The Tigers finished with 27 kills among four players en route to a 25-21, 25-19 road victory over Naperville North in the DuPage Valley Conference Thursday evening.
Seniors Matt Callaway, Thomas Jaeschke, Nick Smith and Tim Zyburt combined for those 27 kills, and setter Kit Bruzek finished with 24 set assists.
“When we’re clicking on offense, it’s going to be tough to play defense against us,” Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier said. “We know we have a long road ahead of us, though, and we know we’ve got to play better.”
Both the Tigers (13-0, 2-0) and the Huskies (7-5, 1-1) kept it close in the first game as neither team led by more than three points until Wheaton Warrenville South closed it out late. Down 20-19, the Tigers outscored their opponent 6-1 the rest of the way as Callaway finished with two kills in that stretch while Smith had two and Jaeschke had one.
The Tigers earned the last point on a Naperville North hitting error.
“I feel like we didn’t take advantage of some of the opportunities that we had, but that comes with being a young team,” Naperville North coach Nathan Bornancin said. “I was proud that we didn’t start out slow. We came out ready to play tonight. Even though we didn’t win, it gives us confidence going into the rest of the season.”
Wheaton Warrenville South jumped out to an 8-4 lead in Game 2, but Naperville North cut the Tigers lead to 8-7 on a kill by Spencer Sauter and two straight service aces by Dan Koch. The one-point deficit was as close as the Huskies would get. The Tigers scored the next four points off a kill by Jaeschke, an ace by Bruzek and two blocks.
Callaway picked up the last kill of the evening on the match’s final point.
“We’re still not where we need to be and we know there’s much more to work on,” Schreier said. “We’re 13 matches in already and a lot of teams haven’t played that many yet. It’s going to be nice to get back into the gym, practice and recover a little bit.”
Sauter led Naperville North with 9 kills, while Koch added 4 kills. CJ Kwak finished with 9 digs, while Matt Thornton and Gert Lisha each had 8 set assists.
Along with his 8 kills, Jaeschke also added 4 digs and 2 blocks for the Tigers, while Dan Eastman had 6 digs.