Wheaton North, Metea Valley learn a lot from Warren invitational

Wheaton North senior outside hitter Charley Marchis is still attempting to find his place in the program this season.

The 6-foot-5 Marchis is adapting to being a leader and a go-to player on the varsity on a team with high-level talent and aspirations to play well into the playoffs.

In some ways, Marchis' mirrors his team's projections.

"I'm starting to feel more comfortable on the court, being a leader on the court for my team," Marchis said.

The Falcons experienced some growth competing in the 19th Annual Warren Blue Devils Volleyball Invitational. The two-day, 24-team tourney featured some of the top teams in Chicagoland, including eventual Gold Bracket winner, Marist. The Falcons (8-4) opened the season with five consecutive wins, raising expectations for a memorable season.

The Falcons won both of their games on Friday before dropping two-set decisions to New Trier and Hinsdale Central. Wheaton North knocked off Metea Valley to finish in seventh place.

"It was a good level of competition, especially so relative early in the season," Wheaton North coach John Noe said. "We're at that good point, where we're experiencing a lot of successes where we want to be at the top tier of the state and should be, but there's something we have to put together. We're seeing a lot of good things in our practices, warmups and team meetings and in our heads, but it's now about getting through the reps and those experiences and have them start translating into matches on the court. We feel like we're playing really well, but our goal is to play excellent as the season progresses."

Marchis, who has not committed to play in college, is one of the leading players on the Falcons. Through 29 sets, Marchis has 73 kills, 51 digs and 19 aces. Senior outside hitter Will Trussell leads the team with 101 kills to go with 44 digs.

Marchis said the high level competition at the tourney was a good learning experience.

"We have to use this tournament to learn and figure out what we were doing wrong," Marchis said. "We made a lot of errors and stupid mistakes against New Trier. We can't do that against good teams like New Trier."

Metea Valley hoping to get healthy:

Metea Valley picked a bad time to experience a rush of injuries. The Mustangs lost all three matches on Saturday at the Warren tourney to place eighth.

"We're battling and we will get healthy as the season progresses," Metea Valley coach Darren Honda said. "We're a good team with good depth and we were able to get in a lot of kids to play this weekend, so that will only help us the rest of the season. The big thing is we won the games we should've won, and we played some really tough teams. That's a good test for us and that experience will get us better."

Junior outside hitter Bartosz Chmielewski is one of six returnees from last season's 6-8 team that relies on athleticism rather than size. Senior setter Aidan Murphy was named to the all-tournament team on Saturday.

Honda said he was encouraged by his team's play against some tough competition amid all the injuries.

"Bartosz had to really step up in leadership with some guys banged up," Honda said. "He had a lot of kills in the first day of the tournament to lead us. On Saturday, we played some tougher teams and he got is points off defense and blocking and Aidan did all he could to deliver good passes. We had a lot of kids playing out of position. We got some other kids playing and playing teams like Marist, Oak Park-River Forest and Wheaton North will help us. These are really good teams that will help build our confidence knowing we can compete with them, especially when we get healthy."

Chmielewski said the Mustangs proved they could compete with elite competition.

"Half our team was injured, but when we get into the full swing of things, we will be fine," he said. "We just need to keep on playing strong and get our connections down. We have the potential to at least win a regional title. We're a good team and have a lot of good club players and I think we can go far."

Springfest update:

Glenbard West made its return to the Springfest tournament a memorable experience, held at Glenbard East. Just like their last appearance in 2019, the Hilltoppers won all five matches to win the tourney. The Hilltoppers (9-1) defeated Downers Grove South 25-18, 25-18 in the championship match on Saturday.

Host Glenbard East placed third in the tourney, with Trevor Real earning all-tournament honors. The Rams (10-3) were led by Real's 28 kills and 18 digs in the tourney, while Tyler Johnson added 27 kills and 8 blocks. Connor Soto contributed 70 assists and 17 digs. The Hilltoppers host Oak Park-River Forest (11-1) on Tuesday in a key early season West Suburban Silver contest.