Rodriguez-Guerrios helps Huskies advance

Updated: April 5, 2011 2:16PM

Oak Park-River Forest won its pool Friday night at Wheaton Warrenville South's Tiger Classic to advance to Saturday's Gold Bracket quarterfinals.

The Huskies will try to win their second tournament in as many weekends and a large part of OPRF's success is due to new setter Diego Rodriguez-Guerrios, a move-in from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rodriguez-Guerrios had 28 assists in a 33-31, 25-20 victory over Evanston (1-5) to complete pool play.

Earlier, Rodriguez-Guerrios had 31 assists in a 25-14, 19-25, 25-15 win over Naperville North (6-2) in matchup between OPRF, last week's Hoffman Estates Invitational champion, and Naperville North, which won the season-opening Buffalo Grove Bison Battle.

After the graduation of standout Tim Schmidt, outside hitter Ben Wilks said even he did not know who would replace Schmidt entering this season. The Huskies (7-2) have found out their answer.

"He's been amazing," Wilks said of Rodriguez. "He's been a great addition to the team. There are some struggles with the new guy. Like any setter, he's the leader on the team. His (sets) are real nice."

After finishing 12th at last year's Tiger Classic, the Huskies are guaranteed a top eight finish, but play defending state champion Marist at 1 p.m. Saturday. OPRF reached the quarterfinals for the first time in at least eight years.

"It's a good team," Huskies coach Don August said. "Everyone is playing really solid."

Rodriguez, a junior, came to the Chicago area in August to stay with his aunt, Eneida, after his school in Puerto Rico went on strike. Rodriguez played for the Pitirres club team there and was a member of the the junior national team, which played in Mexico last year.

"I came here looking for an opportunity to go to college in the United States," Rodriguez said. "It's very competitive volleyball (in Puerto Rico). There is a lot of competition and rivalries between teams."

Wilks had nine of his match-high 11 kills against Evanston in the marathon first set, which ended with a service error and hitting error on the Wildkits. OPRF's junior right-side hitter, Greg Kordesh, had eight of his 10 kills in the second set. He hammered four consecutive kills to give the Huskies a 24-18 lead.

Kordesh didn't even play in the first match while August platoons players to give a deep bench some playing time.

In the win over Naperville North, D.J. Valenti and Will Kemper, the team's other right-side hitter, had eight kills each. Owen Brady had four aces in the first set and six kills in the match to spark the Huskies.

"I'm pretty much offensively have been raring to go," Kordesh said. "I was nervous in my first (varsity) match entering the year."

August has even more middle hitters he will try to get into future matches.

"It's a nice problem to have," August said. "No one else is feeling sorry for me."

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