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Boys volleyball: A historic day for Elgin

The energy level was amped up at Elgin's Chesbrough Field House on Saturday and for good reason. There has never been this much excitement surrounding the Maroons' boys volleyball team and there is certainly a lot to be excited about.

The Maroons not only hosted their first tournament, but they won the first tournament title in program history, sweeping all five matches in a six-team round robin.

The first win of the day was the 13th of the season for the Maroons and that broke the single-season high of 12 set last year. The Maroons (17-13) have now won 6 in a row.

"This was the best day in boys volleyball history for our program," Elgin coach Scott Stewart said. "To break the school record and to win our first tournament is just amazing. Everybody played great and the energy was awesome. This is how good I envisioned this team being. We are peaking at just the right time."

Elgin and St. Ignatius headed into the final round of the tournament both 4-0, but the Maroons used a balanced attack to defeat the Wolfpack 25-16, 25-22 to capture the title.

Kyle Patrick Tayag and Marcus Gonzalez each had 7 kills in the final match. Courtese Cooper added 6 kills.

The Maroons started strong jumping out an 8-1 lead in Game 1.

"We had great energy all day," Tayag said. "By that last match we were going crazy on every point. It was just very exciting."

The Wolfpack pulled to within 16-13 before the Maroons closed out Game 1 with a 9-3 run.

'There just weren't any letdowns today," Stewart said. "Usually during these tournaments I have to call time outs to get the team's energy up. I didn't have to call a single time out today. They were ready to go and took care of business.'

The Maroons led by as many as 6 points in Game 2 but were up just 21-19 late. However, Gonzalez closed strong with a pair of kills and an ace down the stretch to help secure the win. It was Gonzalez's fourth ace of the match.

"It was a pretty exciting day," Gonzalez said. "We weren't sure what to expect. We just came out and gave it our best and wound up on top.'

The Maroons had earlier wins against Grayslake North (25-17, 25-10), Huntley (25-22, 25-20), Romeoville (25-13, 25-19), and St. Edward (25-18, 25-11).

Cooper had a team-high 37 kills and 16 blocks in the tournament. Gonzalez had 29 kills and Tayag 23 kills. Eleno Montes had 64 assists.

Huntley finished the tournament 3-2 with wins over Grayslake North (25-20, 20-25, 15-12), Romeoville (20-25, 25-22, 15-13), and St. Edward (23-25, 25-23, 15-8). St. Edward was 1-4 with its lone win coming over Grayslake North 21-25, 25-22, 15-13.

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