Success defined WW South’s Luhrsen

This may have been the best Wheaton Warrenville South boys volleyball team in the past four years, and that’s why the loss in the sectional final to Naperville North is so disappointing to senior outside hitter Eric Luhrsen.

Luhrsen, the captain of this year’s Daily Herald All-Area Team, finished high school volleyball that night when the Tigers failed to make it to the Elite Eight for the first time in the past four years.

The team’s record during his four years on the varsity was 143-21.

“We had a better record than we had my other three years, 36-3,” Luhrsen said. “We were undefeated in conference and we didn’t lose a game. We prepared for what they would do. But Naperville North was great that night. And that’s why I’m disappointed but not bitter. We’ve had a lot of success, so you can’t complain when you don’t win every year.”

In his first two years on varsity, Luhrsen was part of state championship teams, and last year the Tigers finished second. Luhrsen, who played offensive tackle in football, was even part of gridiron state championship teams the past two years.

“The football and volleyball teams have had similar success,” said Luhrsen, who will attend Eastern Illinois on a football scholarship in the fall.

After he finishes a few tournaments with his club team this summer, his competitive volleyball days will be over.

“I’m disappointed it’s over,” Luhrsen said. “But I couldn’t do both sports forever and I had to pick football. In high school the two sports complemented each other. They kept me in good physical shape all year round.”

Wheaton Warrenville South volleyball coach Bill Schreier said he was privileged to have Luhrsen as a member of his team for four years.

“Eric is an overall well-developed athlete,” Schreier said. “And he’s such a well-balanced person with a great sports IQ. He knows and understands the game and that puts him at an advantage.

Schreier especially appreciated Luhrsen’s willingness and even eagerness to accept new challenges by filling in at different positions wherever he was needed.

“When he was a freshman we thought he would be a backup,” Schreier said. “But when Neal Whittington went out with a collapsed lung, Eric started immediately as a middle.”

During his sophomore year, Luhrsen moved to the right side and he’s been an outside hitter the past two seasons.

And he appreciates the fact that Luhrsen has embraced the tradition of the volleyball program that has won six state championships since the turn of the century.

“When he was younger he was obviously a great player,” Schreier said, “but he would defer to the veterans on the team. This was his year, though, and he took over more of a leadership role. He wanted to get back to state and finish on a high note. Unfortunately, that didn’t transpire.

“But Eric really took ownership of the tradition. He was a perfect transition guy from those first two title teams he played on. He made sure our younger guys the past two years knew what needed to be done and he went about leading by example.”

Luhrsen believes he moved up a bit as a verbal leader this year.

“The chemistry on this team all four years has been great,” Luhrsen said. “We never had just one or two leaders, everybody contributes. But I still feel strongly that I learned something from those guys from a few years ago. Eric Hardek, Joe Kelly, Kevin Mueller and the others. They were so competitive and they’d push each other in practice and held each other accountable. The matches didn’t approach the effort and intensity of our practices.

And what is the Captain’s lasting memory of his high school volleyball career?

“It was in the finals at state against Maine South,” Luhrsen said. “I got the block to win the first game, then we blew them out in the second game to win the state championship.”

The other lasting memories will be about his teammates and Schreier, the most successful volleyball coach in the history of Illinois boys high school volleyball.

“No one will outwork or outprepare him,” Luhrsen said. “He’s always learning more about the game. He studies films of the opposition and reads scouting reports in order to help us prepare for the match. His greatest strength is getting our team to play together as a group and peak at the right time. That’s why he’s had so much success.”