Boys volleyball: Addison Trails leads quality field at Rolling Meadows

There was no shortage of quality volleyball on display Saturday at the Rolling Meadows Invitational.

Addison Trail won the tournament by winning all five of its matches, but Mid-Suburban League entrants Fremd, Meadows and Buffalo Grove had their moments as well.

The host Mustangs scored victories over St. Viator and BG, and they also were the only squad to take a game from the champion Blazers.

In the second match of the day, Meadows started strong versus AT with a 25-22 first set win.

But the Blazers rallied to take the final 2 sets and the victory.

"There's always some things we can do better," said Mustangs coach Kevin Bourn. "It's early in the season, so it's more like 'what did we learn right now' that can help us in conference and can help us in the postseason.

"And also it (the tournament) exposes our weaknesses and what we need to work on. Getting a couple of close wins was great, and getting up on Addison Trail was nice, knowing their reputation coming in. We just didn't close that one out."

Blazers senior Jacob Grygo, a 6-foot-5 setter, said that his team appreciated the strong play of their opponents.

"We just executed well as a team," said Grygo. "We came together. Seeing the different teams (at this tourney) lets us see different styles and it's good practice for us. We came in here wanting to take this and we did what we needed to do."

Bartlett won 3 of its 5 tourney matches, as did Fremd.

The Vikings took 3-game wins against the Hawks and Viator, lost a close one to the Blazers at 23-25, 24-26, and won over Meadows 25-21, 21-17.

Junior defensive specialist Steven Jandura got the winning point against Meadows, a perfectly-placed ace.

"I think we played pretty well today," said Jandura. "We could have done better, but we haven't played too many matches yet this year. I think we're going to do well this season - there's a lot of tough teams in the area but I think we can compete with them."

Senior middle Aaron Peterson led the Vikings on attack with a cumulative 43 kills on 66-of-78 hitting. He also finished 36-of-40 passing with 17 digs.

Jacob Peterson had 72 assists on 252-for-253 setting, teammate Rocco Stella had 6 block kills. The stat sheet for Martin Michalski showed 44-for-47 on serve receive.

"We competed well today, and that's the biggest thing we wanted to take out of this," said Fremd coach Curt Pinley. "It's our first tournament of the year, unlike other teams that have already played a couple tournaments.

"To go out today and be able to compete against the Addison Trails and the Buffalo Groves, who have had several tourneys- I thought we played really well. We were literally a few points away from possibly going 5-0 today."

Buffalo Grove found the early going tough but ended the day on a high note, winning its final match over Viator 25-15, 25-13.

"It was kind of frustrating losing our first few matches," said BG senior outside Brian Franz, who led the Bison on the day with 42 kills. "Each game, though, we put a lot of effort into. We kind of got down on ourselves, but that's what happens when you lose.

"To win the last match gives us some momentum."

BG senior defensive specialists Michael Lohse finished with 13 digs in the win over the Lions.

"We saw some great strides today," said Bison coach Tim Kosiek. "Some of our hitters were connecting at the end of the day even better than the beginning. Our goal this season in every match we play is that when we walk out of the gym at the end of the day, let's be better than we were when we walked in.

"We've got a long-term goal to improve so that at the end of the year we can make a difference in conference and in poststeason."

For host Meadows, Billy Tompkins led the way on the day with 29 kills and 4 aces. Max Schertler added 24 kills, Billy Psarros earned 43 assists, while Charlie Behrens finished with 17 digs.

Middle Arthur Barczak had 27 kills on 57-of-65 hitting.

"Overall we had a pretty good day," said Barczak. "Some of the matches that we lost - we were able to play really well in our first game, but we couldn't end up finishing. That was unfortunate but we still played some pretty good games."

"Arthur's our most powerful hitter," said Bourn. "He's always an option. We can throw him on the outside, the right side, wherever, and we always know that we're going to get a good solid hit from him."

"Volleyball is such a mental game," added Bourn. "Thursday night in a conference match against Buffalo Grove they beat us pretty easily, and then we come around and win fairly easily today. It kind of teaches us that when you have the upper hand, you've got to roll with it."

• Leyden's boys volleyball team took fourth place in tournament action at Niles West with a 3-2 record. The Eagles, who got a total of 62 kills from Robert Elem and 41 kills from Tom Radzizewski, had victories against Lane, Proviso West and Prospect and suffered three-set losses to Niles West and York.

• Maine West improved to 9-3 overall after a perfect run against five opponents for top honors in the Waukegan tournament. The Warriors earned two-set wins over Lake View, Grayslake North and Grayslake Central and Taft and won in three sets against Waukegan.

• Palatine earned a runner-up finish in tournament play at Warren, with its only loss 25-20, 25-22 against champion Lincoln-Way East. The Pirates topped Maine South, Lakes and Deerfield in two sets and Stevenson in three.

Curtis McLennan (50 kills) and Johnny O'Shea (37) led the attack, Ben Rinella generated 108 setting assists. Pacing the defensive effort were Conor Nix (50 digs) and O'Shea (46 digs).