High-fives for invite champion Vernon Hills
Vernon Hills' boys volleyball team earned high-fives Saturday.
The Cougars rebounded from a season-opening, three-game loss to Loyola earlier in the week by going 5-0 at Maine East to win the invitational championship.
Vernon Hills defeated Elgin (25-18, 25-13), Niles West (25-20, 25-13), Lakes (25-18, 25-13), St. Patrick (25-12, 20-25, 15-10) and Maine East (25-23, 25-17).
The only negative for the Cougars might have been their serving, as they missed 42 serves.
"Other than serving, we had a pretty good day," Vernon Hills coach Chris Curry said. "This is a very low-key team, hard to get rattled. When we're focused and aggressive, a lot of good things happen for us. The attack was very balanced, as we need it to be, and we're starting to get some timely block kills.
"Also," Curry added, "although it doesn't show on the stats, we're altering a lot of shots with our block, returning a lot of balls that are getting dug up. It's an effective block, and a lot of guys are involved."
The Cougars were led on attack by junior Garrett Kubacki (41-49, 27 kills), senior Mike Robinson (51-63, 26 kills), senior Pat Stone (29-47, 21 kills) and junior David Swanson (45-56, 22 kills).
Senior Ryan Steeno contributed 9 kills and 4 blocks. Junior setter Justin Opitz rang up 89 assists (197-203), 10 blocks, 8 kills, 17 digs and 5 aces.
"Ryan Steeno has been improving in his positioning on the block, and his offense has been a nice addition," Curry said. "Pat Stone had a monster game against St. Pats when we needed a boost (14/14, 11 kills), and Justin Opitz just did everything well as far as running the team today."
Curry called Opitz the Cougars' "best all-around player" Saturday.
At Hoffman Estates: Mundelein picked up 3 more wins Saturday to capture the invitational with a 5-0 record.
The Mustangs outlasted Oak Park River Forest 21-25, 25-20, 15-12 in the final, after pulling out wins earlier in the day over Naperville Central (25-23, 23-25, 15-10) and Larkin (25-17, 25-12).
Leading the way for Mundelein (6-0) were Patrick Lentz (47 kills, 24 blocks, 6 aces); Mitchell Baumgartner (42 kills, 7 blocks, 31 digs); Andrew Roscoe (117 assists on 229-of-231 setting, 8 aces, 32 digs); Chris Kelly (49 digs); Connor Johnson (17 kills, 24 digs); Brian Chin (12 kills, 20 digs); and Jack Boich (7 blocks).