Boys volleyball: St. Francis stands tall at Conant
St. Francis faced a strong field at Saturday's round-robin boys volleyball invitational at Conant.
Maine West had a stellar campaign in 2018 and is an experienced, accomplished squad this year; Walter Payton and St. Patrick have each made three appearances in the Elite Eight in recent years; and Lakes Community has been recorded as being one of the top teams in the area this season.
But despite the heavy-duty competition, the Spartans were able to win all five of their matches, without dropping a single set, to take the tournament title.
"I was very happy with our performance today," said St. Francis coach Mike Lynch. "We're a very young team and we actually had seven sophomores out here today."
Bryce Walker of the Spartans led his team on attack with 32 kills on the day, and also posted 19 blocks, 4 aces and 8 digs.
Teammate KJ Glab added 32 kills, 7 blocks, 10 assists and 13 digs, while Aiden Benson had 20 kills and 10 blocks.
"What I was most pleased with today was that we were able to get everyone involved," added Lynch. "This is a talented group and they were able to play steady the whole day."
Maine West finished with four wins on the day, falling only to St. Francis, to finish second.
"We have such a tough volleyball conference," said Warriors coach Mike OBrill of the Central Suburban North. "Our goal has been not only to play our difficult conference schedule, but also to compete against great programs in our nonconference matches, and in tournaments. There were some awesome teams out here today and I felt like in our match against Lakes (a victory) we really started to establish a rhythm."
Leading the Warriors for the tournament were Dylan Macariola (15 kills, 6 blocks), Danny Rice (23 kills, 6 blocks, 2 aces), Mason Robbins (7 kills, 11 digs, 3 aces), Luke Meier (27 kills, 4 blocks), Jacob Riedl (18 kills, 4 blocks), Dorin Drimboi (19 kills, 13 blocks), Nick Stasch (55 assists, 1 ace, 7 blocks), and Simon Grimm (18 digs).
Lakes took third place at the invite with a 3-2 mark behind Connor Clowers, who hit 32 kills and had 24 digs.
Teammate Tyler Donovan produced 94 assists.
"Overall we've put together a tough schedule," said Lakes coach Kevin Glabowicz. "Today we put it all together and played very well. I thought we showed how flexible we can be - we adapted and played to our strengths."
Michael LeBaron added 32 digs for the Eagles, while Ethan Metzelaar finished with 18 kills and 18 digs on the day as Lakes defeated Conant, Payton, and St. Patrick.
"We did very well against Maine West in the first set (a 3-set loss to the Warriors)," said Glabowicz, "and I thought our best match of the day was against St. Patrick's (a 25-17, 25-21 win.) St. Francis though is just on another level. They've got a strong attack and some very smart players. They are just head and shoulders above everyone else."
Host Conant ended the day on a high note with a win against Payton, and the Cougars have a couple of outstanding sophomore players in Joe McLaughlin, a libero, and George Tawfic.
"We started a little slow today," said McLaughlin, "but once we got into a rhythm we really stepped up. At the end of the day we were playing like our true selves.
"Against Walter Payton we came out strong," added the sophomore. "We started slowly in most of the matches but that one was different. We got out to a big early lead and just kept it up the rest of the game. It's kind of tough to play against good teams like the ones that were here today, but it's a good learning experience - playing against high level teams helps us improve."
Classmate Tawfic echoed those sentiments.
"Pretty good teams out here today, like nothing I've ever seen," said the sophomore "They're super athletic, and just a whole different experience.
"The first four matches today, we weren't playing like the team we know we can be," added Tawfic. "Our last match we were doing what we're supposed to be doing. I'm just trying to get more experience throughout and so far we have a new, younger team so we're just trying to build chemistry and see how far we can go."