Boys volleyball: Hersey thwarts Prospect's comeback
Hersey defeated Prospect Tuesday night in a roller-coaster ride of a boys volleyball match.
In doing so, the Huskies overshadowed what might have been the best comeback in the Mid-Suburban East so far this year.
Prospect trailed 9-0 in the first set, but somehow rallied and took a late lead.
The Knights couldn't sustain the effort, however, as Hersey won 25-21, 25-22 at Ken Carter gymnasium in Arlington Heights.
It was the third meeting of the year between the MSL rivals. Prospect won the first conference matchup, while Hersey had defeated the Knights last weekend at the Palatine-Schaumburg invitational.
"You knew they (Prospect) were going to score," said Huskies coach Laura Gerber of the Knights' big first set run. "We kind of let down on serve receive a little bit, but then we got it back. The kids were composed and did a nice job."
Senior outside hitter Nate Meyer was outstanding for Hersey with 14 kills and 2 aces, while Ryan Uemura led the way for Prospect on attack with 8 kills.
"We had flashes of brilliance tonight," said Knights coach Mike Riedy. "Some people stepped up their game - Ryan (Uemura) had a nice game despite some service errors and our setter, Ryan Cook, played well."
"Other than that, it just seemed like everybody took turns making unforced errors, controllable errors. There's no excuse for that in this type of competition."
After a Prospect error opened the match, Hersey sophomore outside hitter Justin Arrowood went to the service line and served up 8 straight points to give Hersey the 9-0 advantage.
Arrowood, who had 2 aces in the run and 2 other serves that were simply unreturnable, admitted that he might have been a little fatigued when Prospect finally got a sideout.
"I was a little tired," he said, "but you've got to muscle through. You have to go through the pain to get the joy, and I wanted it badly so I kept going."
Despite the early deficit, Prospect (14-11, 5-2) stormed back and took a 21-20 lead on an ace by Marc Ruffolo.
Then Hersey (16-5, 4-3) rebounded and scored 5 of the next 6 points to take the 1-set lead, helped along by a couple of well-placed kills by Meyer.
"We knew we had to buckle down as a family," said Arrowood. "We've gone through a whole bunch of adversity this season, it's nothing new to us, so we knew we could come out on top.
"We just had to play as a team and keep pushing."
Turnabout was fair play in set two, as it was Hersey's turn to rally.
Prospect ran out to an 8-3 lead, with setter Cook spreading the ball around to hitters Jon Stavnes, Ruffolo, and Uemera.
Hersey slowly climbed its way back into it, and Meyer's kill at the end of a long rally put the Huskies in front 19-18.
The teams then traded points until three straight for Hersey from Connor Krebs, Arrowood, and 6-3 middle Michael Seamans pushed the home team ahead 24-21.
Prospect was able to get a sideout, but then a serve into the net ended the match and gave the win to the Huskies.
"Our setters were doing a nice job of getting the ball to Nate (Meyer) tonight," said Gerber. "He had a nice matchup on the outside, so it made sense to get him the ball, and he did a great job."