Boys volleyball: St. Charles East outlasts Streamwood
Fresh from a solid showing at last weekend's prestigious Marist Tournament, St. Charles East's boys volleyball team opened its home season with a hard-fought, 25-19, 25-22 victory over Streamwood Tuesday morning.
Playing without a pair of starters, the Saints (6-1) got off to a slow start, spotting the Sabres a 5-0 early lead.
Left-handed senior setter Sam Enno recorded a pair of service aces while kills from senior Juan Adan and junior Joseph Huizar delivered kills during Streamwood's fast start.
After the Saints scored 8 of the next 10 points to grab an 8-7 lead, the Sabres answered with back-to-back kills from sophomore Roberto Sanchez and 6-foot-2 senior middle Jack Maybrun to regain a 9-8 advantage.
Streamwood still clung to a 15-14 lead before the Saints capitalized on the Sabres' third service error of the opening set to take the lead for good at 17-16.
From there, senior Matt Kolet took over for the Saints, recording 3 kills and a block while 6-4 sophomore Jacob Stark added a middle kill on set point.
"Obviously, we are missing a few players but even though we had some faults in the game we still came together and played pretty well at times," said Kolet.
In the second set, the score was tied at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and again at 22-22 following a St. Charles East hitting error.
A middle kill by junior Neehar Shah (6 kills, 1 block) gave the Saints the lead for good at 23-22 and back-to-back kills from senior Jeff Makowski and Kolet sealed the team's Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory.
Mistakes were a big part of the second set as the Saints committed 7 service errors.
"It felt like it wasn't pretty at all," said Saints coach Kate McCullagh. "We're proud of the fact that they were able to do it. They took care of what they needed to take care of."
McCullagh admitted that her team struggled to gain momentum at times during the conference opener.
"Mentally, sometimes games like that can be tough when you can't seem to get the momentum but we stuck with it and were able to finish."
Kolet recorded a match-high 9 kills while teammates Lucas Coker, Colin Hanley and Makowski each added a pair of kills.
"It's good to be out here and win on Spring Break," said Kolet.
At Marist, the Saints defeated Mt. Carmel, St. Ignatius, Downers Grove North and Benet sandwiched around a loss to the defending state champion and host RedHawks to claim the Silver Division title.
"It was a great victory for us - the best we've ever done at that tournament," said McCullagh, whose team visits St. Charles North on April 3. "We've got a lot of work to do though before next week."
Adan and Maybrun led the Sabres with 5 kills apiece while Sanchez had 4 kills and Carlos Jasso added 2 aces and a kill.
"We've got a lot of talent," said Sabres coach Sheryl Hettinger. "I told them, 'once you raise the energy level, we might be able to beat teams like St. Charles East.'
"We've got some younger players and a lot of it was on our mistakes but they're learning. I'm excited about the season and hoping we go upward from here."