Carmel rises up, stops Lakes

Granted, basketball season is finished. But this Carmel boys volleyball squad is not tall, not even in the world of boys volleyball.

On Monday night, the Corsairs, playing their first volleyball match of the season, surrendered handily in the height department to visiting Lakes and 6-foot-3 Avery Brodde and Colton Jewell and 6-6 Dalton Sobrig.

As it turns out, maybe height isn't everything in boys volleyball. You see, even at 6-1, Carmel's junior, Michael May, can hit the volleyball very hard.

"He was a baseball player,'' said Carmel coach Kevin Nylen. "He didn't play volleyball as a freshman. But he came to tryouts last year and we picked him up within a day."

May had 9 kills in a match with plenty of errors. However, Carmel eventually made opening night a good one for the home team. Carmel stopped the Eagles 25-22, 25-21.

"We missed 8 serves and had a bunch of blocking errors,'' Nylen said. "But it's OK to make mistakes. We were off for spring break. So we had one practice in eight days. We can't control height so we aren't going to worry about it. We are going to make teams adjust to us. We should be able to control the ball."

The visiting Eagles had 5 games under their belt this spring and quickly soared to a 4-1 lead. However, mistakes, especially serving, caught up with the Eagles.

"We missed serves right into the net,'' said Lakes coach Katie Cheek.

Now, on a night in which her team fell in two sets, Cheek found someone ready to step up for her team. He's middle hitter Matthew Haufe.

"He's only a sophomore,'' Cheek said. "And he's pretty popular in school. He likes to have the pressure on him."

Solbrig, Lakes' most potent weapon with 7 kills and 10 digs, kept his Eagles (2-4) in the first set with some hard hits. May closed set one with a vicious liner to the floor.

"Carmel isn't big,'' Cheek said. "But they played a great game."

Set two began with two service points too long, and two more right into the net. And then Carmel (1-0) got serious. With May serving, the Corsairs rang up 4 straight points to open a 20-15 lead. May even scored the 20th point with a kill.

Carmel had more help from Patrick Meadie (5 kills) and Kyle Zeman (4 kills).

Corsairs setter Drew Mehigan notched 20 assists.

"Drew is a great competitor,'' Nylen said. "He's not really a vocal leader but he knows the game really well."

Mehigan, Zeman and Brian Esterquest are the lone seniors on Nylen's latest squad.

Nick Halberg and Brodde had 5 kills each for Lakes. Dakota Mathez and setter Jewell each had 3 kills. Jewell added 15 assists.