Neuqua not lacking motivation vs. Lancers

Neuqua Valley's Tim Brackett attempts to save a ball from landing against Lake Park.
(Danielle Gardner/Naperville Sun)

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The Neuqua Valley boys volleyball team had plenty to be motivated about in its match on Tuesday.

It was the Wildcats home opener, it was an Upstate Eight Conference game against perennial league power Lake Park and, most of all, senior right-side hitter Grant Hedrick, who underwent surgery for brain cancer last week, was on the bench to cheer for his teammates.

And with all that to play for, the Wildcats went out and beat Lake Park 25-18, 25-19.

"In the huddle before the game, I told the players that if that doesn't motivate them, they might as well turn in their uniforms," Neuqua coach Erich Mendoza said. "It was really great having Grant there here at the match. He's doing really well."

The Wildcats were led by offensive star Rob Bauer's 10 kills. Jon Coraglio, who's replacing Hedrick on the right side this season, added four kills to help Neuqua use its formidable offense to overcome an erratic serve-receive and withstand Lake Park runs late in both games.

"We started slowly in both games because our serve-receive was off," said middle blocker Derek Menendez, who put down five kills. "We have to work on talking more, serving better and passing better than we did tonight."

"Bad passing slows down our offense because we can't run our set plays," Bauer said. "Once we get that down we can be pretty good."

Lake Park was ahead through most of Game 1 leading 15-13, when a clutch Menendez kill brought the side-out back to the Wildcats.

With Coraglio serving, Neuqua reeled off four straight points to take the lead for good.

In the second game, the Wildcats (2-0, 1-0 UEC) led by a few points early and the teams were tied at 11, when Neuqua took the lead on a Bauer kill and, with Alex Onsager (18 assists) serving, went on an eight-point run. The Lancers committed a string of hitting errors and violations during the stretch.

Lake Park (3-2, 0-1) then scored five straight points until a big kill by Menendez just about sealed the game and match.

"One of the things we have to work on is to vary our offense more," Mendoza said. "They know that the ball is either doing to Bauer on the outside or Derek in the middle. They can both dominate. That's why Coraglio's kills were so important. It lets the other team know that this is something you have to look out for."

Lake Park coach Brad Baker believes his team is capable of a lot more than it showed on Tuesday.

"We just didn't put enough pressure on them," he said. "In the first game, 20 percent of their points were on our missed serves. We need to take care of the ball when it's on our side of the net. We weren't even making them play the ball. Our hitting was fine. We struggled with the little things."

Kyle Olszewski led Lake Park with five kills and Dan Grose had four kills and a pair of blocks.