Boys volleyball: Short-handed Grayslake Central wins own quad

Grayslake Central boys volleyball coach Dan Erlenbaugh also serves as spokesperson for the sport he coaches.

When approached by a baseball player, for example, he will say:

"(The temperature for) volleyball is always 70 degrees. There are never any rainouts. And volleyball takes about an hour to play."

Saturday marked the Grayslake Quad, which also included Larkin, Huntley and Streamwood.

Erlenbaugh was willing to make excuses for his club. His middle blockers were out with injuries and, being Spring Break, some players and their families took trips out of town.

So the coach raided the sophomore team for recruits.

And the Rams were the only team to go home without a loss. They won all three of their matches to improve to 4-0 on the season.

The final match of the day came when undersized Streamwood took on the Rams.

"We have a 6-foot-2 kid, but he's in Florida," said coach Jonathan Bacheller, whose Sabres finished 1-2 after losing to Grayslake Central 25-22, 25-13.

Grayslake Central has some gifted players, including junior outside Emmanuel Eugene, setter Steve Reinoso and senior hitter Issac Dahlstrom. Eugene and Dahlstrom registered aces in the first set as the Rams opened up a 10-6 lead. Soon enough, the advantage stretched to 21-15.

Abraham Martinez went to serve for Streamwood. Hard-hitting Joseph Huizar put one down. Carlos Jasso scored another point for the Sabres, Jasso added another kill, and the Rams' lead was 22-19.

"This was a good tournament for us," Bacheller said. "We had a little fun."

Set two was all Rams. With Dahlstrom serving, he notched a pair of aces and got kills from Eugene and Reinoso. Dahlstrom had 15 kills in the quad.

"We played pretty well over here," Dahlstrom said.

Eugene led the Rams offense with 20 kills.

"I play volleyball because it's fun to and exciting to play," Eugene said. "I think we have a pretty solid team.''

Huizar led Streamwood with 30 kills. Setter Jasso notched 57 assists. Libero Martinez had 38 digs. Streamwood did manage a win over Huntley in the quad.

Larkin also fell to Grayslake Central but won its other two matches.

"We learned a lot about our team," Larkin coach Katie Smiley said. "We graduated a lot of seniors last year. We really stepped up today. I'm proud of our team."

Grayslake Central's Reinoso, notched 46 assists, while Kaleb Patrick led the Rams with 18 digs. Sophomore Jordan Kulis paced the Rams with 8 blocks, and Tyler Armstrong had 10 kills.