WW South chooses not to lose

A lot of teams get themselves pumped by saying "we're not going to lose" during a crucial game in a crucial volleyball match, but few can make that phrase stick as well as three-time defending state champion Wheaton Warrenville South.

In Tuesday's match against Naperville Central, the Tigers trailed 17-13 in the third and deciding game when coach Bill Schreier called timeout and co-captains Bodie Ebergeny and Eric Wilkins made that declaration in the huddle.

So the Tigers turned around and outscored the Redhawks 12-3 down the stretch to pull out a 17-25, 25-1l, 25-20 win.

With the victory the Tigers (21-5) remain undefeated at 9-0 in first place in the DuPage Valley Conference, while the Redhawks (12-13) fall to 5-4.

"We came together as a team and everyone knew we weren't going to lose," Wilkins said. "We have a psychological edge in those situations because we've had some close Game 3s this year."

"We talked during the timeout that we needed to outscore them by 2-to-1," Schreier said. "We needed to play error-free and we pretty much did that. We didn't miss a serve during that run and we outscored them by 4-to-1."

The Tigers' Game 1 was filled with numerous errors, but then they settled down in Game 2 and became more consistent thanks to strong serving by David Priest and Matt Wilkins and the dramatic kills by Ebergeny and Eric Luhrsen.

In that closing sequence in the third game, Matt Nussbaum dominated at the net.

Luhrsen was the kill leader with 13, while Ebergeny smashed 10 and had 3 blocks and 5 digs. Eric Wilkins served for 29 assists and came up with 7 digs.

"We came out flat tonight," Ebergeny said. "And Naperville Central was waiting for us to come on and finally we did. When we can string a few points together we know the other team is gong to start to fold. I use that as motivation. There are teams that can hang with us as Naperville Central did, but we're able to come together as a team and put together some points during a third game."

Ryan Thill and Alex Povejsil led the Redhawks with 8 kills each and Matt Neufeld had 7. Zach Madsen was the dig leader with 10, and setter Albert Lei dished out 24 assists.

"The big thing is that Wheaton is match-tested in the aspect of finishing a game," said Naperville Central coach Bryan Johnwick. "They've been in tough situations the past several years. They have expectations that they're going to play well."

And in that situation the Redhawks gave away valuable points.

"We have to maintain a lead, maintain our serve-receive and our sideout ability," Johnwick said. "But our passing broke down at the end. We had a lot of missed opportunities. They took care of their opportunities and we didn't take care of ours. They're an excellent team."