Boys volleyball: Leno lends big hand in Hersey win

Hersey boys volleyball coach Nancy Lill said the result of Thursday match against Wheeling might have been completely different if not for the inspired play of Andrew Leno.

"He had 4 kills in the second set," Lill said. "Andrew came through when we needed him bad. That was critical."

The stellar play of Leno, a 6-foot-3 senior outside-right side hitter, helped the Huskies rally for a 23-25, 25-21, 25-21 Mid-Suburban East win at the Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

"Leno came in and had 4 kills in a row," said Huskies senior Jake Mailloux. "That boosted our confidence and we just went on from there."

The visiting Wildcats played superlative volleyball for much of the evening but found out how difficult it is to beat a champion on its home court.

Hersey won the MSL East last season and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight.

"I've been around the game long enough to know that any single play can change the momentum of a match pretty quick," said Wheeling coach Jason Kopkowski. "We obviously expected Hersey to make a run because they're a good program and they have been for years."

Doing most of the offensive damage for Wheeling was 6-3 outside hitter Jared Moser.

"Moser was fantastic," Lill said. "We finally had to put three guys on the block against him in the third set to try to slow him down."

The Huskies (3-1, 2-0) were on the brink of winning the first set, leading 23-19 but Wheeling scored six straight points to take the game.

Jorge Carvajal started the comeback with an amazing defensive play with a bump kill.

Then great defense by teammate Joseph Hernandez and late kills by Kuba Ceipiela saw Wheeling take a one-game lead.

The Wildcats took a 16-10 advantage in the second set but Hersey rallied behind the hitting of Leno, Joe Nugent (12 kills, 6 of those block kills) and Mailloux (8 kills) to tie match.

"We knew if we kept communicating we could push through," Leno said. "We kind of stopped talking for a little bit and when I came in I tried to spark as much energy as possible. We got hyped up and got the momentum going."

Hersey took a commanding 19-12 advantage in the deciding set but Wheeling came back by again scoring six consecutive points to close within 18-19.

Nugent then hit three straight kills, and despite a couple of spikes from Moser, that kept the Wildcats (3-4, 0-2) close.

But Hersey was able to close out the win.

Senior Camran Saeed added 8 kills for the winners. Jakub Migus had 28 assists. Christian Hong (15 digs) and freshman Lucas Irwin (10 digs) anchored a strong defensive effort.

"It wasn't pretty," Lill said. "But you have to give a lot of credit for that to Wheeling. Their defense was fantastic and they frustrated the heck out of us."

"We kept believing in ourselves," Mailloux said. "We picked up our defense, got better passes and were able to diversify the offense."

Moser finished with a match-high 14 kills for Wheeling.

"We lost our execution touch in that little stint (in the second set)," Kopkowski said. "The momentum started rolling in their (Hersey's) direction."

Kopkowski added that he was impressed by his team's rally in the third set.

"That's a credit to our guys," said the Wheeling coach. "No team ever takes the court looking to lose, and for our guys it's a credit that they kept playing and kept fighting through. You can't get 5 points in one single rally so you've got to patient and take it point by point."

"We can't dictate the results but we can dictate our play, and we've had seven matches on the season now and most of them have been this caliber."