Boys volleyball: Kushnir takes command for Vernon Hills against Antioch

By George, they did it. At Vernon Hills, that is.

They trained a server who could dominate at the line. He's Matt Kushnir, and this senior gets it. He's studied the art of serving and understands what to do with the volleyball in his control.

"I try to keep my elbow up,'' Kushnir explained. "That helps with my floater and gives me no spin."

Put it this way. Kushnir went into serve in the second set with his Cougars (16-11) ahead 7-3 against visiting Antioch on Wednesday. And when Kushnir finished serving, the score was 16-4. Three of those floaters produced aces.

There was also help from a block and kill from fellow senior Johnny McDonald, along with another kill from Leo Turner.

It was a long bus ride home for Antioch. The Sequoits trailed 20-9 in the first set and 20-8 in the second set as the Cougars prevailed 25-13, 25-14.

It serves a good warmup for Vernon Hills, which battles Lake Zurich on Thursday night in a big North Suburban Conference match.

"We made too many mistakes,'' said Antioch coach Jamie Atkinson. "We didn't show Vernon Hills how well we can play. It's disappointing."

Kushnir was a little more generous to the visitors from Antioch.

"They gave it a really good effort,'' Kushnir said. "I think our serving made them uncomfortable. We tried to be aggressive serving the ball."

Vernon Hills' tough serving put the Sequoits (9-14) in an immediate hole.

Isaiah Liu opened the serving for the Cougars and he rang out 5 straight points. Both Chris Winter and the powerful Jared Bennett registered kills.

Antioch didn't score a point on offense until Ian Flatley came to the serving line. That point, however, came courtesy of the Cougars on a bad pass.

Vernon Hills' next server was Corey Caudle. He extended the Cougars' lead to 19-7 as Turner and Liu checked in with kills.

"We have been getting better,'' Kushnir noted. "We had to figure out who we were, and bring the effort every night. We have a lot of people from last year so we do have the experience."

Vernon Hills coach Chris Curry knows baseball's loss was his team's gain when Kushnir shifted his attention to volleyball.

"He's not the tallest or the strongest,'' Curry said. "But he'll do anything for his team. He works so hard."

Set two began with a Jake Fiarito serving ace. Flatley answered back with an ace for his Sequoits.

And then Kushnir went into his act at the serving line as the second set turned into a romp for the home team.

Now, it wasn't a perfect match for Vernon Hills. The last two Cougars serves went directly into the net, allowing the visitors some easy points.

Still, the Vernon Hills serving was quite effective in a big-picture sense.

"We worked hard on our serving,'' Curry said. "We are not good at everything so we try and stay really motivated."

Bennett led a balanced Cougars offense with 7 kills with McDonald (5 kills), Kushnir (4 kills) and Turner (3 kills, 2 blocks) lending support. Fiarito had 10 assists from his setter position.

Kushnir had those 4 aces, and Flatley led the Antioch offense with 4 kills. Bryan Ortiz led the Antioch defense with 9 digs, and Kristian Jimenez added 6 digs for Antioch.