Homewood-Flossmoor overcomes early struggles

Updated: May 23, 2011 9:38PM

Homewood-Flossmoor coach Brandon Cotter had seen it before, and he was worried he was seeing it again.

Opening the volleyball playoffs Monday in an Oak Forest regional quarterfinal vs. Shepard, the Vikings came out strong, only to give away a second game with 16 unforced errors.

“Our problem the entire season is we’ll come out and play a great first game,” Cotter said. “We get happy and think that’s good. We come out with just not the same intensity. Typically in third games we’ve struggled, and we can’t get back to that first game. We played well enough to pull it out.”

Homewood-Flossmoor reversed its seasonlong trend, overcoming early struggles in the third game to pull out a 25-17, 23-25, 25-22 win. The Vikings will play the sectional’s top seed, Sandburg, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Marcus Young’s 10 kills and Wyatt Patterson’s eight kills led H-F (7-28). Also contributing were Nicholas Connolly (33 assists) and Shaquille Lott (7 kills).

“(Marcus and Wyatt) both have our highest kill percentage,” Cotter said. “When our passing isn’t there to them as middles, you notice the difference in our game.”

The Vikings were solid in Monday’s first game, using their service game to pick apart Shepard. As good as the team looked early, though, it struggled as much in the second with 16 unforced errors.

“We tried to refocus and pick ourselves back up,” Young said. “Sometimes we get a little down on ourselves, and stuff comes apart. We pulled together, stayed loose, and that’s how we got the win.”

Trailing 9-4 in the third game, H-F regrouped, getting even at 15 after a net violation. Young followed with two kills.

Looking to put Shepard away, it was Patterson stepping up with two kills. Jack Condon’s sixth kill of the match helped the Vikings advance to the regional semifinal.

Dan Taylor (7 kills), Pat Neylon (15 assists), Ubaldo Perez (11 blocks) and Nick Ebert (6 kills) contributed for Shepard (6-17).

For a team that took its lumps this season but loses just two seniors, Shepard coach Joan Alderden hopes the experience helps next season.

“It was rough this season, and we didn’t want it to end like this,” Alderden said. “We do have that experience now, and we need to use it to our advantage.”

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