Positive outlooks helps drive Vernon Hills

Confident, excited and relentlessly positive.

That pretty much describes the attitude of the Vernon Hills boys volleyball team in its 25-21, 26-24 North Suburban Conference victory at Stevenson on Wednesday.

"This was the first time we played an entire match with emotional consistency," coach Chris Curry said. "You couldn't tell if we won or lost a point because there was no change in our emotion. We shrugged off our mistakes and didn't let anything bother us."

The result was that Vernon Hills (13-6,-5) stayed perfect in conference play. The Cougars share first place with Warren. Stevenson dropped to 12-10, 3-2.

"We finally put everything together," senior middle Herman Lynn said.

Lynn put together his usual strong performance (14 of 16, 9 kills), but this time he had plenty of help. Junior Alex Tartakovsky (8 of 8, 6 kills) had his best match of the season. The duo also combined for 5 blocks.

"Stevenson is a great team and we had to come out with this type of intensity," Tartakovsky said. "I knew that I had to do everything I could tonight."

Stevenson played scrappy defense to prolong points but could not consistently play at Vernon Hills' level.

Junior Brad Feiger and Drew Vravick each had 6 kills. Senior Jason Giecek distributed 22 assists, and senior Harrison Kay contributed 12 digs.

"We were inconsistent with what we were doing," Stevenson coach Tim Crow said.

In addition to its play form the middles, the Cougars received big offensive performances from juniors Ernie Choi (9 kills) and Keegan Harris (6 kills).

"When Ernie's aggressive, he's capable of that," Curry said.

Junior setter Sam Lee continued to show his improvement in running Vernon Hills' 5-1 offense. Senior libero Jeff Achler had a match-high 14 digs.

"Sam has really upped his game," Curry said. "There was only one set the entire match where we wished he would have done something else, and we (ended up) winning that point."

Some bad serving in the middle of the first game helped Stevenson tie the score at 17-17. But the Cougars quickly regained their composure and closed out the game.

With Vernon Hills ahead 24-23 in the second game, Stevenson withstood one match point. The Cougars closed out the match on a pair of kills by Harris.

"It definitely feels good to be at the top (of conference)," Lynn said. "Now that we're at the top, we have to keep ourselves there."