'Swagger' helps St. Francis earn win over Glenbard West
Suddenly St. Francis - tiny, underdog and often under-sized St. Francis - has become the boys volleyball team with "the swagger," and that's a good thing because the swagger often translates into confidence in clutch situations.
After losing the first game 26-24 to a young, talented but swagger-free Glenbard West on Wednesday, the host Spartans composed themselves and came back to win 25-16, 25-17.
"When our guys lose a game, they just say, 'We're going to three games now,'" said St. Francis coach Mike Lynch. "We're a team on a mission. We have high expectations and we expect to win, and win with a balanced attack."
The balance of the St. Francis offense that's put into motion by the defense of Thomas Culligan, who had 16 digs, and continues with setter Mark Roberts, who ran up 37 assists, couldn't have been more apparent as five hitters put down 5 kills or more.
Steve Howe led with 12 kills, followed by Jack Mordell with 10, Dan McGuire with 9, Joe Pfeiffer with 6 and Joe Mordell with 5.
That's just a typical day at the office for the Spartans (29-3).
And when you add in the threat setter Roberts presents at the net with 5 blocks, you see why opponents have found the Spartans so hard to deal with this year.
Glenbard West (15-12) took the Spartans to three games for the second time this season but couldn't capitalize on its Game 1 victory.
"In the second game our serve-receive fell apart and we couldn't run our middles," said Hilltoppers coach Christine Giunta. "And when you can't run your middles, you don't know where the ball is going."
It was Giunta who laid the "swagger" label on the Spartans, and she meant it in a positive and respectful way.
"They have the swagger," she said. "They've been there a million times. It's their home court. They move the ball around. They know how to win. We're just creeping up. We're right there. We can take a game off anybody. We just have to get over that hill. I'm proud of the kids for the 26-24 win in Game 1."
McGuire admitted that the Spartans showed a little humility and may have been a bit nervous at the beginning due to the big crowd.
"We're not used to having a lot of fans here," McGuire said. "It was a little intimidating, and we didn't come out as aggressive as we usually play."
Howe had another take on what may have caused the Spartans' nervousness.
"We're dealing with a different mentality this year," Howe said. "I think we may be a little worried about losing our local ranking or our national ranking. That marks us now and we may be playing a little tight. But we have to learn to not care about it. We just have to play our game the way we know how. And we did that in Games 2 and 3. After the first game all the nervous energy was gone."
One aspect of the Spartans' game, the Hilltoppers have picked up is their balanced attack that was led by Chris Thompson's 11 kills, followed by Adam Lepold's 8 kills and 4 blocks and Ian Lawson's 7 kills.
Kevin McGinnis was the dig leader with 10.
"Matches like this are big for our kids," said Giunta, who rarely has more than one senior on the court at any time. "We haven't been in big matches, ever. These kids are still learning the game."