Palatine rebounds to top Hoffman in three

Not many people expected Palatine or Hoffman Estates to be 1-0 in the Mid-Suburban West going into Thursday night's boys volleyball match on the Pirates home floor.

Both teams had faced daunting tasks in their West openers, but both rose to the challenge as Palatine rallied to defeat Fremd and the Hawks came back to beat Barrington.

The Vikings and Broncos had tied for the division title last year with identical 9-1 records.

"We've been working hard," said Hoffman coach Dan Hutton, "and came in off a big conference win. We're a young team -- 9 of our 12 players were on JV last year -- and anytime you can come in (to the next match) off an MSL win, you're excited to play."

The Hawks started strong at Palatine and grabbed Game 1, but the Pirates blocked Hoffman's path to victory with superior blocking in Games 2 and 3.

Palatine seniors Josh Rustman (6 blocks), Bart Danczuk (5 blocks) and Ronny Lampen (5 blocks) dominated the last two games at the net in a 23-25, 25-15, 25-16 Palatine win.

"They blocked everything," said senior Max Martin, who led Hoffman with 6 kills on 32-of-42 hitting.

"They couldn't get anything over the net," agreed first-year Palatine coach Frank Stark," which was obviously nice for us."

Martin and classmate Tyler Davis were superb in Game 1, which went to Hoffman on a Martin kill from a Steve Anderson set.

"We've been starting flat," said Stark. "It was the same way in the match against Fremd (where Palatine also lost Game 1)."

"I'm not sure what the problem is, but I told the guys that could come back to haunt us at the end of the season."

Then Hoffman, which had looked so sharp in the first game, seemed out of synch at times in Game 2 as Palatine (6-4, 2-0) ran off 12 of the last 13 game points to tie the match.

Then Rustman set the tone in Game 3 with 3 early block kills.

"We were definitely frustrated after the first game," said the 6-foot-10 senior. "We talked about it afterwards and got ourselves ready to go.

"Coach (Stark) told us that most of their sets were going to go to No. 3 (Martin) and No. 18 (Davis), and we were going to have to make the adjustments."

Hoffman could get only as close as 12-8 in the final game as the late blocking of Danczuk and Lampen helped close out the match.

Lampen led the Pirates on attack with 10 kills, Rustman added 9 and defense specialist Chris Brown contributed 13 digs.

"Hoffman is an excellent team," said Stark. "They're a very smart team, and Max (Martin) is great on the outside. They had us on our heels.

"We had to start making adjustments and I was very impressed the way Ronny (Lampen) and Josh (Rustman) made adjustments to the timing of their hitters."

"I just told myself I was going to close everything out," added Lampen. "We've been focusing on blocking in practice, and it's paying off."

Hersey d. Elk Grove: Griffin Dwyer and Jack Welter had 7 kills apiece as Hersey (3-5, 2-0) handed Elk Grove (8-1, 1-1) its first loss 25-22, 25-23 in the MSL East.

Mike Reiser and Dwyer had 4 blocks apiece and Chris Hoffman had 20 assists for the Huskies. Jonathan Tompary had 10 kills, 9 digs and 4 blocks and Eric Freidenfelds had 8 kills and 6 digs for Elk Grove.

Fremd d. Conant: Kevin Prest had 11 kills, 3 aces and 3 blocks, Dan Teschner had 8 kills and Ben Whitmer got 28 assists for Fremd (4-4, 1-1) in the 25-21, 20-25, 25-14 MSL West win.

Ken Ropiak and Dan Aloisio had 8 kills apiece for Conant (9-4, 1-1).

Meadows d. Prospect: Ryan Kedzie (9 kills, 7 blocks, 3 aces), Tyler Vinezeano (9 kills, 12 blocks) and Matt Vinezeano (6 kills, 9 blocks) led Rolling Meadows (4-3, 1-1) past Prospect 23-25, 25-22, 25-16 in the MSL East.

Scott Pickle had 8 kills and 5 aces for Prospect (6-3, 0-2).

BG d. Wheeling: Joe Ascher had 9 kills and 3 blocks, Jim Wizniak had 7 kills and 3 blocks and Tom Angerame had 17 assists for Buffalo Grove (9-4, 2-0) in the 25-17, 25-23 MSL West win.

Tom Devitt had 7 kills and 2 aces for Wheeling (3-8, 0-2).

St. Viator d. Fenton: Sean O'Connor and Tim Rast had 7 kills apiece for St. Viator (3-6) in the 25-15, 25-17 nonconference win.