Pieces coming together for Pats

Updated: April 28, 2011 11:33PM

New coach. New setter. And a lot of new faces.

“We were not clicking earlier in the year,” said St. Patrick outside hitter Ryan Fisher, one of a few holdovers from last year’s 23-12 state quarterfinalist. “But I definitely feel like we are getting closer now.”

Fisher had eight kills and a block, junior Joseph Williams added 11 kills and a block and outside hitter-turned-setter John Budzinski added 25 assists, four aces, two kills and two blocks to lead St. Patrick to a 25-19, 14-25, 25-17 victory over Benet Thursday in Lisle.

The win gave St. Patrick (8-7, 2-2 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference) a modest two-game winning streak.

“Early in the season, we were playing lineup roulette,” said first-year St. Patrick coach Julie Wiejak, who succeeded Joel Anderson after he led the Shamrocks to consecutive state appearances including a fourth-place finish in 2009.

“(Budzinski) had never set before at any level,” she said. “But the only setter on the roster sprained an ankle during our third practice. Budzinski is an amazing athlete. He has a 35-inch vertical. But we all need to be playing well at the same time.”

St. Patrick had everyone playing well in Game One at Benet, but none better than Williams and Fisher who combined for 10 kills and a block. However, the duo managed just four kills between them in Game Two.

“We tried to put it on cruise control in Game Two,” Fisher said. “We played down to their level and did not play our best. Between games, we said that we cannot let them back in the match and in Game Three we played the kind of volleyball we know how to.”

Trailing 5-4 early in Game Three, St. Patrick went on a 10-2 run to put the match out of reach. Kevin Doherty added four kills and junior middle Tim Byrne added three kills and a block for the Shamrocks.

Six-foot-5 junior Bobby Wehrli led Benet (16-6, 2-1) with 13 kills and an ace, but no one else had more than three kills for the Redwings.

“It was not our best match,” Benet coach Amy Van Eekeren said. “We had an amazing match Tuesday (against Notre Dame) and I thought we’d carry that momentum over. But we did not come out tonight in attack mode.

“Our passing really limited what we could do offensively,” she added. “We made it too easy for them to anticipate where we were going. We could not run our middles and we could not run our opposite. You are not going to beat any team if you cannot pass.”

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