Buffalo Grove keeps winning in East

Make it 31 straight regular-season conference victories for Buffalo Grove in boys volleyball.

The Bison, who have gone 10-0 in the Mid-Suburban East the last three seasons, continued their divisional dominance with a 25-15, 25-13 win over visiting Hersey on Tuesday.

Senior Camryn Castle led BG, which has placed a priority on defense this year, with 22 digs in a brilliant early performance.

“It was our first division match, and we wanted to come out firing — especially since the game was against our rivals,” said the libero, who was also 13-for-13 on serve receive.

Sophomore outside hitter Kevin Schroeder led the Huskies with 5 kills.

“I’m disappointed,” said Hersey coach Jodi Blazek. “I thought we’d give them more of a game.

“We’ve struggled a bit early. We’ve had some injuries and some illness, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Buffalo Grove is a very solid all-around team, but I think the second time around (when we face them) we’ll be more ready to go.”

BG proved it will have a varied attack in 2011 as six different Bison (Chris Shanahan, Jamie Schnittker, Sam Wacker, Jon Ward, Michael Starzec and Lukas Karch) recorded kills in both games — but coach Matt Aiello agreed that defense will be a focus for another state tourney run this year.

“I feel like we can get kills anytime we want,” said Aiello, “but sometimes the guys will have to give up a pretty kill or powerful shot to make sure the defense is there.”

“We’ll often devote a full practice to defense,” said BG junior Matt Bloom. “Coach Aiello will get up on the referee stand and hit balls at us for 2½ or 3 hours.”

Hersey senior Jacob Portugal recorded an ace for the Huskies (2-4, 0-1) on 6-of-6 from the service line, while senior Shanahan led the Bison (10-3, 1-0) in hitting with 6 kills.

“We’ve played a couple of tournaments where we’ve faced a lot of the teams we’ll probably see downstate, to measure where we’re at as a team,” said Bloom. “Now we’re coming out (in the MSL season) with a goal, as usual, of winning conference and taking that momentum into the state tournament.”