Another year, another state crown for Tigers

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The weekend was a blur for Wheaton Warrenville South setter Joe Kelly.

“It felt like it went a lot faster than the last two times we were here,” he said. “Even the wait between the first game (Saturday) and the championship game seemed to go fast.”

The weekend might have gone too fast for Kelly, but not fast enough for the teams that have been chasing the Tigers for the better part of the last decade.

Kevin Mueller had eight kills, 6-foot-10 Neill Nystrom added six kills and three blocks and Kelly had 16 assists as WW South (38-4) became the first boys volleyball team to win three consecutive state titles by defeating Maine South 25-23, 25-14 Saturday at Hoffman Estates.

The state title was the fifth in six years and sixth overall since 2001 for WW South and coach Bill Schreier.

“We’ve always been known as a football school,” Schreier said. “But we’re trying to change that to a volleyball school. We’re up on them by one (state titles) now, so football’s got a little pressure on them.”

WW South trailed 14-11 and 22-20 in Game 1, but closed on a 5-1 run punctuated by two Maine South errors and a block on game point from 6-5 sophomore Eric Luhrsen. The Tigers extended a 9-5 lead to 17-9 on another Luhrsen block in Game 2 and Maine South could not stop the bleeding.

Neal Whittington added three blocks and Rob Samp had two kills and three blocks for WW South.

Maine South coach Gary Granell was left to wonder, “What if?”

“I thought in Game 1 we were right there, up a couple of points and playing good defense,” he said. “I liked our chances. But we’ve seen it before. When WW South has its back against the wall, they manage to pull it out. We made a couple of errors and let it slip away.

“I think if we had gotten the first one, the second game would have been different,” Granell added. “Overall, I felt we stacked up pretty well against them. We just did not have an answer for Nystrom. I thought we handled their other guys well, we just needed to get more touches on Nystrom.”

Eric Butch had eight kills and two blocks and Matt Butch added four kills and three blocks for Maine South (35-7), which was the last school (2006) other than WW South to win a boys state volleyball title..

“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” Eric Butch said. “I don’t think anybody expected us to be in the championship game except us. WW South is a great team. They played well.”

In the semifinals, Eric Butch had 18 kills and Matt Butch added 10 kills and four blocks to lead Maine South past Buffalo Grove 25-22, 23-25, 25-23.

The Bison rallied from a 10-2 deficit in Game 2 to force a third game, but a Matt Butch block capped a 5-1 run by the Hawks after they trailed 15-14 in Game 3.

In the other semifinal, Mueller had nine kills as WW South beat St. Patrick 25-15, 25-22. John Coen had 12 kills for St. Patrick.

Buffalo Grove (32-6) defeated St. Patrick (30-7) 25-22, 25-21 for third place.