St. Edward spolis Westminster's program debut

It was another small step in the evolution of the athletic program at Westminster Christian.

The Elgin private school debuted its varsity boys volleyball team in a nonconference match at St. Edward Tuesday, competing with a total of 11 players.

Playing under new coach Cindy Gritzman, the Warriors acquitted themselves well in a 25-18, 25-23 loss to the Green Wave, who were missing three starters taking part in a retreat.

The Warriors had their moments, but none compared with the dazzling performance from the service line turned in by St. Edward's Tony Sandoval.

The freshman stepped to the line in Game 1 with St. Edward already leading 7-5. Sandoval won his first service point on a tip kill by sophomore setter Bob French; then he got on a roll. Using a powerful, accurate, diving jump serve, Sandoval served 6 straight aces to put the Wave in command, 13-5.

"I surprised myself," Sandoval said. "I guess it's just believing in yourself, that you can get one serve in right after the other. You don't even pay attention to the scoreboard, just what you have in front of you and what you have to do."

Two of Sandoval's jump serves completely froze the Westminster defense and landed on the back line for points.

"It was hard for us the way it was coming down," Westminster senior A.J. McNett said. "When (Sandoval) came back around again our libero, J.J. Marshall, was able to get that serve up and it gave us a confidence boost."

Westminster Christian trailed 16-9 in Game 2, but the Warriors rallied for 8 of the next 9 points to tie the game at 17. The surge was highlighted by junior Ian Irwin's block kill and an ace by senior Ben Farwell, who served 6 straight points.

"I was very pleased," Gritzman said. "The biggest problem when you start practices for a team that has never truly competed is they don't necessarily understand why you're going over some of the things you're going over. You can say why you're practicing something, but until they experience it I think it's a big difference. Covering, for example. Our covering is not at the level it needs to be to play varsity volleyball. Now, I think they see that."

Game 2 was tied four more times before the Green Wave (1-0) broke free from a 22-22 stalemate. Junior Jake Yohn put St. Edward in the lead with a two-handed set to the corner for a point, and a wide spike attempt by the Warriors led to match point.

Junior Bobby Waclawik fanned on his first kill attempt at match point, but he earned another chance on the next point and put the ball down to seal the victory.

"We were missing a lot of seniors, but we had guys step up tonight," French said. "Our passing was a little rocky, but we got it back together and took care of business."