Naperville North rebounds with Silver victory over Lake Park
The Naperville North boys volleyball team showed some of its potential Saturday and gave followers a preview of how dangerous the Huskies will be when they get their entire team back on the court.
Playing without two starters and with another just returning from an injury, the Huskies (7-4) won all three of their matches Saturday and took the Silver Division championship at the Tiger Classic with a 25-21, 25-22 win over Lake Park in Wheaton.
The victory gave the Huskies ninth place overall in the tournament that was won by Sandburg in a 25-22, 25-19 victory over Marist in the final.
Host and three-time defending champion Wheaton Warrenville South finished fourth in the Gold Division.
Naperville North, Lake Park, Naperville Central, which finished 13th, and York, which finished 15th, all qualified for the Silver Division after going 1-1 in pool play.
Shane Witmer, who registered 11 kills, 5 digs and 2 blocks, led the Huskies in the win over Lake Park. He had 43 kills for the tournament.
"We played so much better today than we played yesterday," said Naperville North first-year coach Nate Bornancin. "Our setters and our outside hitters are finally starting to connect. Shane was our go-to guy today."
"We just wanted to play as a team," said outside hitter Witmer. "We did a lot of talking on the court, and we limited our errors. Our middles set up the game so that our outsides only faced a single block."
The Huskies, who played consistent defense and displayed strong blocking throughout, took advantage of Lake Park errors in order to finish at the head of the Silver Division.
"We were just giving away too many points," said Lake Park coach Brad Baker. "We're not getting good quality swings and it's costing us points. If we can go 3-2 in the Silver Division making all those errors, it says we're doing a lot of other things right. If we can clean up the mistakes, we'll be all right."
Mike Kreiser led the balanced Lancers attack with 8 kills. Pat Proctor had 7 and Matej Mitev added 6.
Bornancin believes the Huskies are on their way and they'll be much better when they can get their entire team on the court, which hasn't happened much this season.
Middle hitter Brandon Haze was injured early in the tournament and will miss about two weeks with a high ankle sprain. Libero Danny Boryca, is recovering from mononucleosis and will be back in the lineup next week, and setter Steve Massoni saw his first action this weekend after being out with an injury.
The Huskies' Sam Wilson was named to the All-Tournament team along with Proctor, Wheaton Warrenville South's Eric Luhrsen and Eric Wilkins.
Buffalo Grove, which finished sixth in the tournament, put Nick Baronti on the All-Tournament team.
"Our losses to Lincoln-Way Central and New Trier represented a good wakeup call for us," said Buffalo Grove coach Matt Aiello, who believes the Bison can go all the way to the state title this year. "We made too many unforced errors. The guys were reminded that they have to work hard and stay focused."