Stay Connected with YourSeason
Waubonsie’s late run stuns Neuqua
Updated: May 17, 2011 10:02PM
Some teams are fortunate to have one good setter. Waubonsie Valley has the luxury of two and both will be around for a few years.
Sophomore Luke Furman had 12 assists and 6-foot-3 freshman Mike Simmons had five assists, two aces, and six consecutive service points with his team trailing 21-18 in Game 2 as Waubonsie Valley stunned rival Neuqua Valley 25-21, 25-22 Tuesday in Naperville.
Waubonsie Valley’s victory, its first over Neuqua Valley since 2006, spoiled the Wildcats’ Senior Night and denied the hosts an outright Upstate Eight Valley Division title. Neuqua (27-6, 4-1) was forced to share the division title with Lake Park.
Furman appreciated what he and his teammates had accomplished.
“This is a big rivalry,” he said. “Spoiling their Senior Night and denying them the division title by themselves is a great feeling. We still have one more match left, but this gives us a lot of momentum going into the state tournament.”
Waubonsie coach Al Lagger said Furman and Simmons both bring something unique to the court and both work well with a different set of players.
“Luke is paired with Will (Gautschi), Jordan (James) and Sean (Keeve) and Mike is paired with Chris (MacFadyen), Graham (Bringham) and Selby (Wilson),” Lagger said. “They just seem to connect with each other.”
All six hitters had at least two kills with James leading the way with five kills and a block, but it was Gautschi’s kill and Simmons’ consecutive aces with the Warriors trailing 21-18 in Game 2 that ignited the decisive 6-0 run.
“We never lost focus,” Furman said. “We kept pushing and just did what we do best.”
Tuesday, Waubonsie Valley (22-12, 3-2) did almost everything well.
“I thought we blocked extremely well, we served extremely well and we passed extremely well,” Lagger said. “We kept our guys out in the hallway during the Senior Night ceremonies and I thought that helped them stay focused.”
Neuqua Valley got five kills each from Tanner McKeown and Tommy Stevens and 19 assists and a kill from Alex Blackwell, but the Wildcats were never able to string more than a handful of points together and never led by more than three points in the second game.
“We made too many mistakes,” Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza said. “We had eight missed serves in Game 1. After Game 1, some of the guys got a little tentative with their serves. We weren’t as aggressive. We usually get a few cheap points off aces, but we didn’t tonight.”
Conner Dart added four kills for Neuqua Valley and Jon Storm had a quiet night with three kills and a block. Gautschi and Keeve each had four kills for Waubonsie Valley and Wilson added three kills and two blocks.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment