Boys volleyball: Parks, Downers Grove South ace test vs. Metea Valley
Downers Grove South senior Brandon Parks considers serving to be one of his strengths, though he said he hasn't served particularly well early in the season.
That changed in big way Friday night.
Parks, a 6-foot-3 outside hitter, uncorked a match-high 7 aces, including 4 in key situations, to lead Downers South to a 28-26, 25-19 boys volleyball victory over Metea Valley at Wheaton Warrenville South's Tiger Classic.
The win advanced Downers South (3-2) into Saturday's Silver Bracket while dropping Metea Valley into the Bronze Bracket. Both teams had previously been swept by pool winner Lincoln-Way West.
"I think it shows other teams that when we lose, we let it go," Parks said. "We leave it.
"Losing to Lincoln-Way West kind of gave us a bad taste in our mouth, but it really made us play 10 times harder in this game."
Parks and his teammates needed every bit of that effort because Metea (3-6) led in both sets and had a set point in Game 1.
Parks, who had 5 kills and 5 digs, erased that with a kill and then followed with an ace to give Downers South a 26-25 lead. Parks dumped his next jump serve into the net but Jack Tischler and Chris Cossyleon followed with kills to close out the set.
Jump serving is a high-risk, high-reward proposition, but Parks and Connor Grabs, who added 2 aces to go with 6 kills, didn't back down even after making errors. Grabs' second ace gave Downers South its first set point at 24-23 before he missed his next serve.
"A lot has to do with the toss, so one of them I let it drop because it was way too far behind me," Parks said. "Once you get it going, the harder you serve, then you keep increasing the intensity."
That's what helped Downers South rally from a 20-16 deficit in the opener. The Mustangs needed it again in the second set after quickly falling behind 8-3.
Parks and Grabs started that rally with back-to-back kills and the two sides battled point for point until it was 16-16. That's when a service error gave the lead to Downers South and the serve to Parks, who preceded to rip three consecutive aces.
"Serving is like a big momentum swinger for teams," Parks said. "So when we make our serves and get aces, it doesn't just hype the server up but it hypes everyone else up. So it kind of makes everyone even more hungry to win than we already are."
That's what Downers South coach Kurt Steuer wants.
"Brandon Parks and Connor Grabs got behind the line and were ripping their jump serves," Steuer said. "That kind of sparked it a little bit.
"It's nice to see those guys step up and deliver for our team. It was a good win for these guys and I know they're ready to come back tomorrow and do it again."
Tischler added 4 kills for Downers South, which also got 9 assists apiece from sophomore setters Nathaniel Cossyleon and Dom Fallara in recording its first two-set win of the season.
Ryan Owens had 6 kills to pace Metea.
"Our passing kind of broke down a little bit," Metea coach John Aister said. "I don't think we played badly. It was a situation where it was very even and they just made a couple more plays than we did."