Shenkin sets up another Glenbard East triumph

There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but so far the switch to setter for Glenbard East’s Tim Shenkin has been a major success.

The 6-foot-5 setter/middle has transitioned quite well, and Tuesday’s 25-19, 25-12 road win at Wheaton North has the Rams sitting at 12-2 on the year and 3-0 in the DuPage Valley Conference.

The host Falcons exchanged points for much of Game 1, which featured nine ties before Glenbard East used an 11-5 charge to close out the game. But with Shenkin and his teammates sharp in Game 2, the Rams stormed ahead 10-1 and completed the sweep going away.

“We’ve made a lot of progress since the beginning of the year,” said Shenkin, who had 3 kills, 3 blocks and an ace to go along with 12 assists on Tuesday. “I’m new to setting, and personally I’ve grown a lot and the team has grown with me. They’ve helped me a lot along the way.”

Wheaton North, despite playing without a pair of key banged up seniors, jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the opener and led 9-8 after sophomore Hank Bowen set up Zachery Sinn for a kill. But the home team couldn’t hold off the Rams in that game and then never stood a chance after digging a big hole in the nightcap.

“We got on a little bit of a roll at the end of the first game, and that momentum carried over into the second game,” Rams coach Marci Maier said. “We did a nice job of keeping the bus rolling from there.”

With the score tied at 14-14 in Game 1, Wheaton North committed a hitting error and Shenkin followed with an ace. With some nasty serving, Shenkin helped his squad score four quick points to take control of what was a tight opener.

“I was just trying to get a little separation,” he said when asked about the timely tough serves that created an 18-14 lead.

Even so the Falcons trailed just 20-19 before Glenbard East regrouped to take the opener 25-19 thanks in part to a kill from Joey Farrell and a serve on game point by Mike Heim that crawled over the top of the net and dropped safely on the Falcons’ side of the net.

Game 2 was all Rams, who led by as many as 11 points at 15-4 and again at 19-8.

“We hung with them point for point and really battled in the first game,” Falcons coach Ryan Baker said. “But we needed to be more consistent for both games and they played mistake-free volleyball in that second game and they just got rolling.”