BG answers Prospect's challenge
Buffalo Grove coach Matt Aiello said his talented Bison team "hasn't been tested too often" yet this season en route to a 15-2 overall record.
The got quite a test Thursday night at Prospect by a young, up-and-coming Knights squad.
After suffering through a woeful Game 1, Prospect came alive in the second game and gave visiting BG all they could handle before falling just short in a 25-15, 32-30 Bison victory.
BG took advantage of some exceptional hitting from seniors Nick Baronti and Mike Jambrone to persevere and improve to 4-0 in the Mid-Suburban East.
"We haven't played many close games this year," said Aiello, "but we got quite a challenge tonight from Prospect. I really respect their program and coach (Mike) Riedy.
"Our guys responded well, but I thought both sides were sloppy tonight. There were a lot of missed serves, and a lot of aces on just average serves. It was an intense match, but I wouldn't call it great volleyball."
Baronti led BG on attack with 13 kills on 17-of-18 hitting while Mike Hammersley put down 7 kills for Prospect.
"It was error after error after error for us in the first game," said Riedy. "The bottom line is in the second game we had fewer errors and because of that we were able to take BG out of their system a little."
After BG dominated Game 1, it was all Prospect (9-5, 3-1) through most of Game 2. Helped along by an awesome defensive effort (8 digs by Hammersley and 9 from libero Sean Baltowski), the Knights led most of the game and looked poised to extend the match.
But BG fought off 5 Prospect game points, and with the game tied at 30-30, the Knights fell victim to a bad bounce.
Hammersley fought off a powerful spike attempt by Baronti with an incredible dig - but with setter Kevin Wolter (13 assists) poised to make the pass for a possible go-ahead point, the ball hit a suspended basketball backboard and bounced away, giving BG a 31-30 lead.
"You'd think we'd get a homecourt advantage on something like that," said a smiling Riedy. "I guess not."
A kill attempt by Prospect on the next point went wide to give the victory to BG.
"We stayed calm at the end," said the 6-foot-9 Baronti. "We showed that we're able to play under pressure and work together as a team."
BG juniors Chris Shanahan (9 kills) and Jamie Schnittker (5 blocks) contributed to the win, while Prospect's Wolter (7 digs) and Dan Hoffman (5-o-f-5 on serve receive) sparkled for the Knights.
"I'd have to pat ourselves on the back tonight for our defensive effort," said Riedy. "They guys did an incredible job on defense."
Schaumburg d. Conant: The host Saxons outlasted the Cougars 25-22, 21-25, 25-23 in MSL West play.
Junior Zach Lindeman had 10 kills and was 30-for-32 on the attack for Conant (5-10, 1-3), which got 20 setting assists from senior Sean Engelbreit.
Hersey d. Rolling Meadows: Hersey used a decisive 25-15 victory in Game 1 and held off the host Mustangs 26-24 in Game 2 in MSL East play.
Hersey's Brandon Klein came up with 10 kills, Paul Kolesar had 9 and sophomore setter Matt Cayton was 55-for-56 setting with 15 assists.
Rolling Meadows (5-5, 1-3) got 6 kills from Kyle Weiner.
Fremd d. Palatine: Jeff Chappell came up with 11 kills and Steve Maring was 45-for-46 setting with 18 assists to help the host Vikings (7-2, 3-1) past the Pirates 25-19, 27-25.
The top producers for Palatine were Nat Pearson (9 kills, 7 digs), Adam Hebein (9 digs) and Justin Ginter (20 assists).
Elk Grove d. Wheeling: After the team split the first two games by 25-16 scores, the visiting Grenadiers pulled out a 25-23 decision in Game 3.
Senior Scott Siwicki hammered home 16 kills, and Szymon Gierut had 10 for Elk Grove (8-9, 2-2 MSL East). Jeff Miceli handed out 36 assists, Don Gardner had 4 blocks and both Gierut and Siwicki had 13 digs for the Grens.
Wheeling's best performers were Bikram Chohan (13 digs), Matt Levine (8 kills, 5 blocks), Mitch Lewis (7 kills), Paul Sawicki (6 kills) and Alex Tapas (30 assists).
Fenton d. St. Viator: The host Bison won 25-20, 27-25 in a nonconference match in Bensenville. St. Viator was led by junior David Kingsley (9 kills, 3 digs).