Boys volleyball: Big finish vs. Hersey keeps Buffalo Grove perfect in MSL East
Buffalo Grove senior Daniel Rogowski stands 6-foot-1, a tad on the short side for a middle hitter. But he just might have the best vertical leap in the Mid-Suburban League.
Thursday night, Rogowski used his superior jumping ability to lead the Bison to a stunning MSL East boys volleyball victory over Hersey.
The visiting Huskies were 1 point away from a win as they held a 24-20 advantage in the third set. But BG scored 6 consecutive points to claim a 17-25, 25-13, 26-24 triumph.
The rally enabled the Bison to complete a season sweep in the East with a 10-0 mark.
"This feels great," said Rogowski, who finished with a team high 8 kills on 9-of-10 hitting and 5 blocks. "Now we'll be able to defend our (MSL) title with a perfect record."
Buffalo Grove advances to next Wednesday's championship match against West champion Barrington, a team the Bison upset in 2 games last year to win the crown.
"I expect a tough match just like last season," said Rogowski of the upcoming game against the Broncos. "I think if we play the way we played tonight we can win again."
It was a heartbreaking defeat for Hersey, which had 4 chances to close out the match but couldn't finish.
It was the third time this season that the Huskies lost to BG.
"I don't think I've ever been part of a more frustrating loss," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "We let it slip away. You've got to give BG credit, they didn't make many errors at the end."
Hersey controlled the first set behind the hitting of Angelo Coniglio (18 kills) and the serving of Justin Hong (11-of-13 with his jump serve and 2 aces). But BG setter Zach Schnittker put forth a superior effort in the second set to tie things up.
Schnittker had 5 of his 7 kills and 1 of his 2 aces in set two.
"Zach is a senior," said Bison coach Tim Kosiek, "and he's hungry in addition to being talented. He takes us to another level, and one of the most impressive things about him is that he trusts the players around him, and that gets them fired up. There's a certain synergy to it."
Hersey recovered to take control of the third set and when Coniglio hit a tip kill, the Huskies were at 24-20 and on the verge of a big win.
Then a dramatic straight-down-to-the-court spike from Rogowski gave BG life, and Hersey called time out.
"At that point," said Kosiek, "I basically reminded the guys that teams have done this - come back from a big deficit - before. As a matter of fact, we had just done it against Rolling Meadows, coming back from 7 points down.
"All year long these guys have been playing to win, sticking together, and taking every point individually."
The Bison still trailed 24-21 but Hersey (22-7, 7-3) committed 2 straight hitting errors. Then Rogowski came up with a clutch block kill to tie the set at 24.
BG got another block kill to take the lead, and a Hersey kill attempt sailed just wide on match point for the Bison (24-10, 10-0).
Huskies libero Hong gave props to BG's Ian VanWazer, who was at the service line when BG made their match-winning rally.
"He (VanWazer) kept getting the ball in, and that kept them in the game," said Hong. "His serve was getting in our heads."
VanWazer swatted 7 kills for the Bison on 11-of-12 hitting.
"We never gave up," said Rogowski. "If we learned anything from that game against Rolling Meadows, it's that even if we get way down we can come back from anything."
"The kids really stepped up," said Kosiek. "They rode the leadership of Schnittker and (senior libero) Blake Maley (9 digs) to the win, and I have to give a lot of credit to the performance of (defensive specialist) Greg Schneider. He did a nice job and really helped us run our offense tonight."