Chemistry carries Wheaton Warrenville South to second place
Moving from outside hitter to libero, Wheaton Warrenville South senior captain Kolbie Knorr has a different perspective this boys volleyball season.
He's not alone on the Tigers. With several key returnees, expectations are to improve upon last year's loss in the regional finals.
"We all love each other, play together a lot," Knorr said. "I think that this year our emphasis is on team chemistry because if we have great team chemistry, we're going to go very far in the (state) tournament."
In their first tournament of the season, the Tigers (5-1) showed a lot of character. Although they lost to New Trier 25-19, 25-17 for the title of their 13th annual 24-team Tiger Invitational, they earned quarterfinal and semifinal victories over Naperville Central and Sandburg, respectively, both in three games.
Buffalo Grove (8-3) outlasted Sandburg 25-20, 27-29, 25-18 for third place. Naperville Central (9-2) beat defending state champion Lincoln-Way East 25-14, 25-22 for seventh.
Knorr, WW South senior John Hildebrand and junior Zack Meyer, Buffalo Grove junior Zack Schnittker, Naperville Central junior Jack Burton and Waubonsie Valley senior Andrew Salmon were named to the 15-player all-tournament team.
The Tigers finished 10th at the invite in 2014. Last week's plans to play at a tournament in Hawaii fell through at the last minute.
"It was a good run for us, especially with only having just one match in (before invite pool play Wednesday)," WW South coach Bill Schreier said. "(Knorr) had a great day today, especially against Sandburg. That was the reason (we won). We broke their backs because we were getting balls back up and putting pressure on them."
Hildebrand, senior Ben Carpio, Meyer and Knorr led the Tigers against New Trier (7-0), which lost just two starters from last year's state quarterfinalist. The Trevians won all five invite matches in two games.
The Tigers' previous two high-energy matches took their toll in the final. New Trier zipped to an 8-0 lead and led 14-3 before Schreier used his first timeout.
"I said, 'What do you expect me to say, 'Pass better?' " Schreier said. "They're more experienced this year, so (I want to) let them try to figure some stuff out and see what can happen."
New Trier led 23-10 before a 6-point service run by Meyer cut the deficit to 23-17. The Tigers played a fairly even second game but had only one service rotation for multiple points in leading 6-3. New Trier went ahead for good at 13-12.
"Two three-set matches in a day is a lot, so definitely we got off to slow starts (in the final games). First of all, they were playing well. They were serving us great. All good to them," Knorr said.
"I'm really, really proud of my team. We had two really hard matches, but we came together. We had some highs and some lows but we were able to battle through. We just didn't get it done in the championship, but we learned from that."
New Trier was led by seniors Dante Chakravorti and Henry LeVee and juniors Henry Lindstrom and Peter Hindsley. Lindstrom and senior libero Brian Hammes were all-tournament.
The Trevians opened with 12 kills and 2 attack errors and finished with 33 kills and 10 errors.
"We've had a nice start to our season but not quite as dominant as that first game," New Trier coach Sue Ellen Haak said. "(Our players) were just very consistent, very focused, low on errors, high on aggressiveness at the net. It was nice to see them play like that."
The Tigers outlasted Sandburg 19-25, 25-17, 25-23 in the semifinals after beating rival Naperville Central 23-25, 25-18, 25-22 in the only three-game Gold Division quarterfinal. The Tigers scored the final two points against Sandburg (7-3) on Hildebrand kills after losing a 23-21 lead.
The matches gave Knorr plenty of practice at his larger leadership role this season. He already has committed to play volleyball for downstate Quincy University.
"This is my second year being captain and I definitely need to be vocal," Knorr said. "I've been working hard on being vocal every play both at practice, during games, out of practice, just getting the team together."
In the third-place match, Buffalo Grove avenged a three-game loss at its tournament last week to Sandburg behind Schnittker and seniors Kevin Shanahan and Athan Cruz. The Bison lost to New Trier 25-20, 25-21 in the semifinals.
"At the end of the day, in the third-fourth game, everyone's tired, and they just came back and were aggressive and intense (to win). It's exciting to watch them continue to rally," Buffalo Grove coach Tim Kosiek said.
"Our goal was to come in today and stay positive and not to let adversity slow us down at all and I'm seeing that. Our goal was to keep our composure, and I'm seeing that. I'm seeing leaders rise on the court and the fun thing is it's not just one person. We've got four, five, six guys putting the ball down."