Boys volleyball: Living the dream, Libertyville rises past Warren
It's every coach's swell dream - the one where your players decide to work out and get stronger in the off-season.
And just to add to the reverie, they also grow taller.
Only at Libertyville, that's the reality when it comes to Jack Stevens.
Yes, as a sophomore, he made headlines in boys volleyball. Now a junior, he's put on 25 pounds and stands 6-feet-5.
The growth spurt also happened for middle blocker Shane Feiereisel, now checking in at 6-8.
"No one has blocked him yet this year,'' noted Libertyville coach Jenny Smith.
Libertyville (7-1) seemingly brought back its entire squad from last year's excellent season. Now, that doesn't mean the Wildcats' opponents are ready to hand them a conference crown.
On Wednesday night in the Wildcats' West Gym, the guest was Warren. The Blue Devils had 11 different leads in set one. One of Stevens' 10 kills knotted the first set up at 23-23.
But Libertyville prevailed in two tough sets, 25-23 and 25-22. It was the first North Suburban Conference match for both squads.
"We expected Warren to come out strong,'' Stevens said. "We know a couple of their players from the club season. This was our first conference match and first home game."
Momentum is key in volleyball, but for most of this match, neither team could actually grab it.
"I'm happy with the win,'' Smith said. "Warren was scrappy tonight. There were a lot of side outs. But we also made a lot of mental errors."
Feiereisel notched back-to-back kills in set one. Still, Warren led 11-9.
"We started out slowly,'' Feiereisel said. "But we have a lot of returning players. We just have to live up to our potential."
Warren (5-3) had its biggest lead in set one at 14-10.
"We are still a work in progress,'' said Warren coach Yun Chen. "We got destroyed by Libertyville last year so just wanted to be competitive tonight."
Warren did not score on offense after the Devils took a 13-10 lead.
Set two stayed close early before Libertyville finally managed a few rallies. With Steven Donovan serving, another Stevens kill and a Warren error gave the Cats a slim 13-11 lead.
Stevens' turn on the serving line paid off handsomely for the Wildcats. Brendan Cook (6 kills) and Stevens jumped in with kills, and the Cats had some breathing room at 22-16.
Warren didn't give up. With junior Alex Jiang at the line, Warren earned 3 straight points. After Brett Bauer (5 kills) came up with a hard hit, the Libertyville lead was down to 22-19. Bauer added a few serving points for
the final margin.
Warren libero Matt Daniel notched 9 digs, while setter Kyle Wells managed 10 assists and Mihajlo Gomez led the Blue Devils attack with 7 kills.
The Wildcats had help from setter Ryan Hirschel. The senior had 23 assists and added 4 kills. Libero Sam Kharasch had 12 digs, and outside hitter Drew Fortini added 4 kills and 4 digs to lead the Libertyville attack, while Stevens (9 digs) and Donovan (7 digs) paced the defensive effort.