Zee-Bees too tough Deerfield

Updated: March 24, 2011 2:30PM

Zion-Benton boys volleyball team jumped right into the fire on opening night of the 2011 season, taking on county powerhouse Deerfield for its opening match.

Predictably, the inexperienced Zee-Bees struggled at times, and lost 25-16, 25-23 to a team that could rank among the area's elite when this season is over.

The Zee-Bees graduated five starters

seven seniors from last year's team, including Tyler Boyce and Trevor Rieker, who are both playing at Robert Morris University in Waukegan.

Eric Ness is also playing college ball, as he's at Moody Bible in Chicago.

The only returnee is Josh Hieb, and he had four kills in Monday's loss. Jorge Wence had 16 assists.

"I've talked to these guys about this being a growing process," said Zion coach Jacob Carlson. "We're going to have to grow together as a team. I think we have some nice players. If we can continue to improve, we'll be a tough team in the middle

later part of the season."

On Monday, the tough team was Deerfield.

The Warriors are a veteran group and were led to victory by Eric Silcroft (six kills), 6-foot-11 thumper big Jim Letten (four kills, four blocks), Jonathan Bolek (19 assists), and Daniel Kaplan (four kills, three blocks).

Letten is being recruited by Pepperdine and San Diego - two California-based colleges.

"You get your usual first-game jitters, and some kinks we have to work out," said Warriors coach Eugene Chung. "We'll be fine. The core of this team is seniors and most of these guys are returning starters."

Deerfield figures to have a big winning season, but Chung knows there's work to do.

"It's a really competitive field this year," he said. "It's all going to come down to how we execute and how well we do things I know we can do. Honestly, I think it's up for grabs. There's a lot of quality teams in this area."

One of those quality teams is Vernon Hills, which Deerfield will face on Thursday.

Zion will play at Waukegan on Thursday night.

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