Boys volleyball: Bartlett brings home U-46 title

Expectations have been raised this season for Bartlett's boys volleyball team.

Fielding an experienced group - 9 of the 11 players are seniors - the Hawks (8-2) relied on that familiarity while sweeping 4 matches on their way to capturing the annual U-46 tournament title Saturday in Elgin.

Bartlett, which didn't lose a single set on the day, sealed its 4-0 record with a 25-22, 25-14 afternoon victory over Elgin.

Seniors Martin Radomski paced the Hawks in their final match with 7 kills while teammate Toiyon Walton added 6 kills and a block.

"Most of the people that are on these teams, we've played on the same club together," said Walton, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter who displayed his leaping ability against the Maroons. "When we play each other, it's kind of like a fun scrimmage but it was a great day."

Jacob Bush (3 kills, block), Carter Burzlaff (2 kills, 2 aces), Matt Tomasek (2 kills, ace), Garrett Jurina (1 kill, ace) and junior James Ballance (12 service points, ace) helped provide support for the Hawks.

Bartlett began the day with a 26-24, 25-15 triumph over eventual second-place South Elgin (3-2) before knocking off Streamwood (25-23, 25-19) and tourney host Larkin (25-20, 25-14).

"We went to the limit twice against Streamwood and South Elgin," Bartlett coach Bob Schwantz said. "I also know that against Streamwood we had 19 errors in the first set - and they scored 23 points.

"That's going to be our biggest challenge. Teams make mistakes, I get that, but we just made a lot of them today."

Their final match against Elgin was no exception as the Hawks committed a total of 16 service errors - 8 in each set - mostly on jump-serve attempts.

It's a risk-reward approach for Bartlett.

"That's what I tell the guys," said Schwantz. "I can't have it both ways. I can't say, 'get all your serves in but still be aggressive.'"

Elgin, led by Trey Yarber (3 kills, block), Jesse Quinones (2 kills) and Luis Ramos (2 kills, ace), cut a 17-10 opening-set deficit down to 24-22 following the Hawks' 8th service error.

However, Walton delivered a middle kill off a picture-perfect pass from Burzlaff as Bartlett grabbed the first set.

"I think we're still working on our timing," said Schwantz. "We're also working on distributing the ball more.

"We have goals. We want to win conference and try to win a regional but we can't play like we did in set one (vs. Elgin). All day today, it seemed like we couldn't get our feet under us."

Coming off a 4th-place finish at last weekend's Hoffman Estates tournament, the Hawks face one of their busiest stretches of the season next week, capped by Saturday's Rolling Meadows Invite.

"We have eight matches next week," said Schwantz, whose team visits Glenbard North Monday.

"We're looking forward to the Glenbard North game because they knocked us out of the regionals last year," said Walton. "Rolling Meadows will be one of the hardest tournaments we'll have so we've got to make sure we're ready to come out strong."

South Elgin won 3 of 4 matches at Larkin, while Elgin, Larkin and Streamwood each finished 1-3.