Glenbrook North boys volleyball seeks to raise the intensity
A combined 28 regional titles and 13 state trophies makes Glenbrook North and Wheaton Warrenville South usual suspects in boys volleyball.
On April 6 the programs met in Northbrook and learned more about what it'll take for them to approach that level this season. It mainly involved raising their energy level.
Glenbrook North won the match in three games, 25-18, 20-25, 25-21.
The hosts took a 7-0 lead in Game 1 before the Tigers found their footing, played Game 2 in what Spartans coach Chris Cooper termed "practice mode," then solidified late in a back-and-forth finale.
Glenbrook North had entered the season at No. 13 on the 1st Alliance VBC/Illprepvb.com boys high school preseason rankings, compiled by volleyball expert Phil Brozynski.
"We had a week off (during spring break), so we were hoping that we'd come out and at least work out some kinks again," Cooper said.
"It was a good match to come back to after having our spring break. But I hope that they realize that we've got to pay with that intensity," he said.
It seems they did.
"We learned this game that we really have to play with energy," said Spartans senior libero Kyle Piesert, who recorded 13 digs.
"Like our coach said, we're not going to beat these teams if we don't play to our fullest capabilities and get excited," he said. "The second set, we'd have big plays and be like, Oh, yeah, we can do this. We've just got to rile everyone up and get excited and keep playing like we know we can."
Glenbrook North showed some of that right off the bat last Thursday - a week before the Spartans were to play Wheaton Warrenville South again in pool play April 13 at the 2023 Tiger Classic in Wheaton.
After Spartans middle hitter Graham Gottschild earned the first point with a defensive block then an attacking kill, Piesert served for 6 straight points and a 7-0 lead. Glenbrook North established strength at the net with Paul Cho, Lance Lai and outside hitter Connor Durst, who finished the match with a team-high 13 kills. Cho had 7 kills and 18 assists.
It forced WW South coach Bill Schreier into a quick timeout to sternly address a young Tigers team he thought was in "a little bit of shell shock," he said.
"I got after them about the fact that if you are able to go ahead and compete and play hard, you can turn momentum and you can change the direction of things," he said.
WW South responded with a Joseph Kelly block for a point and for the rest of the game, and match, played out evenly.
"I think we thought we were just going to roll over them in the second set and beat them by a lot. We obviously lost that one, so that showed us," Durst said.
Except for four tied scores, Glenbrook North led Game 2 for most of the first combined 34 points. Cooper coaxed passion from the sideline, saying, "Let's get excited." Junior outside hitter Evan Uhlig responded with a hard spike from the left side of the net, one of his 11 kills on the day.
A Spartans serve out of bounds allowed WW South a breather. With Mergen Purevsuren serving and freshman outside Simon Bratt twice beating the Spartans' block, the Tigers took control. They scored 7 of the set's last 9 points, Kelly winning at the net for the Tigers' 25-20 win.
"They played with intensity, we kind of played in practice mode, almost, where we were just playing instead of realizing, hey, we've got to play with a lot of intensity," Cooper said.
Starting with Gottschild's kill from the middle to begin the third game, 17 lead changes and 16 tied scores made it either team's match.
"He (Cooper) and I have gone through a lot of good battles, this is just one more of those," said Schreier, who got 18 assists from Kelly, 6 kills from Bratt, 18 digs by Joe Kohley and 10 digs and 5 kills from Purevsuren.
Glenbrook North senior setter Colin Schaefer, who assisted on 21 points, delivered an ace for the game's first 2-point lead, 21-19. A short run with Uhlig serving moved the Spartans to match point, 24-21, when a long Tigers serve out of bounds gave Glenbrook North the set and match, 25-21.
"In the third game it was a little bit back and forth, but I thought we picked up our energy a little bit better that third game and certainly at the end we really started to get back that energy that we had," Cooper said.
"We're a good team, but we're not good enough, we're not big enough to just beat teams off of sheer physicality. We've got to have that effort, we've got to have that intensity, or else we're going to struggle."
That was the take-away.
"We had some big kills toward the end there," Durst said. "That gets us riled up and excited, and I feel like that kind of raises the overall energy of the team, which allows us to keep playing hard.
"I think it's early in the season, we have a lot to work on still. We're still developing chemistry as a team, but I think we'll be solid toward the end of the season, for sure."