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Ball control, aggressiveness key as St. Charles claims first state volleyball crown June 18, 2009 by Jim Jicha St. Charles claimed its first state volleyball title with a 25-16, 25-20, 25-19 victory over defending state champion Archbishop Hoban in the Division II state final played at Walsh Jesuit High School. The Cardinals had finished State Runner-Up to Thomas Worthington in 1990. The result was payback for last year when senior-laden Hoban ousted a largely junior Cardinal squad 25-23, 25-23, 25-15 in the state semifinal. This time around the Cardinals started five seniors against a Knights roster that had been restocked from an undefeated junior varsity team. The match looked to have been a bit closer based on the outcomes of two previous meetings. Hoban had won a mid-April encounter on the road 21-25, 25-16, 20-25, 25-16, 15-13, which the Cardinals avenged with a 25-22, 25-18 verdict in the Buckeye Classic in early May. But looks can be deceiving, as Cardinal Coach Shane Farrell explained about their first meeting. “We were missing one of our middles at the time. It was definitely a difference they exploited”. In the first rematch, Farrell said, “we decided to alternate where we were putting the ball, every time some place different, so they could never key on one player”. As for the championship match, Farrell said “We spread the ball around…we also figured out who we wanted to serve to after seeing them a couple of times...we kept in control where we put the ball”. St. Charles definitely took care of the ball with pinpoint passing from Honorable Mention All-State libero Zach Hartmann, Second Team All-State outside Ned Gruber and whoever else was in back row at the time. The hits came from everywhere and everybody, and many of those that didn’t go down kept the Knights out of system. Gruber paced the attack with 15 kills from front and back row. Left handed setter/opposite Damon DiSabato kept Hoban blockers honest on the right with kills from the left. Outside Matt Van Volkenburg scored from left, right and back court. Junior middle Nick Summers contributed blocks and aces in the first two sets, but came up with three key tips from the middle in the deciding game. And with such a veteran starting lineup, it was in keeping with their spread out offense that the Cardinals' first and final kills were recorded by 6’3” sophomore middle Andy Sellan. Aggressiveness was also a factor. “We knew they were a ball control team like ourselves, but a bit younger”, Farrell said, adding “We realized there were going to be some long points, but as long as we were more aggressive, they were going to end up tipping to us and giving us the advantage”. St. Charles led all the way in game one after Hoban opened with two miscues. After that Sellan pinpointed a two handed hit into back court, and Van Volkenburg smoked a kill down the right to end a long volley kept alive by digs from setter James Yurkovich. Hoban cut the margin to 4-2 as junior setter/outside hitter RC Kunig put the Knights on the board with a kill down the right, and St. Charles reciprocated one of the errors. The Cardinals re-upped the ante to four on an ace from Van Volkenburg. After point trading, Hoban junior outside Eric Antonucci hit into the left corner to leave things at 7-5. But Gruber squelched any serious rally ideas with a cross court spike, which he encored twice with kills, while Summers block killed to open things up to 11-5. Hoban First Team All-State setter/outside Willy Veverka stopped that run with a tip, and the Cardinals obliged with a double hit. But Gruber pounded a Yurkovich quick set right at a defender, then served five more points as Van Volkenburg pounded away and double block killed with Summers. Yurkovich added two dumps and a block to prevent Hoban from starting anything. And after the Knights failed to return a blast by Van Volkenburg, DiSabato put the game on ice with a right side smash off the block. Momentum shifted in game two which saw five ties, four lead changes, and Hoban in front much of the way. The Cardinals jumped out quickly to start as Van Volkenburg prevailed on a play at the net, and DiSabato nailed his third kill of the match. Kunig intervened by crushing a short set from Veverka, but Sellan countered with two on a block and tip. The Knights, however, capitalized on two St. Charles miscues to take as 6-4 lead as sophomore middle Mikey Sokol sandwiched two block kills on Sellan around a blast down the right by Second Team All-State senior outside Mike Horth. St. Charles called time out, after which Van Volkenburg duly ended the run with a block on Horth. Gruber slammed a point cross court from the right, and after a pole infraction by the Knights, the Cardinals were back in front 7-6. But Kunig hit into a hole to retie, and St. Charles obliged with two miscues, the second on an attempted overpass demolishment. Gruber riposted with a well placed hit that was dug into the stands, and the Cardinals again knotted the score on a hitting error. But Horth kept Hoban in control with a blast off the block. Sokol teamed with Antonucci on a block, then solo blocked. And when the Cardinals were caught reaching over and Horth served up an ace to make it 14-9, St. Charles used its second timeout. That worked as Gruber nailed another cross court shot that started a three point spurt. And after two Cardinal miscues, he block killed to spark another trey to which libero Zach Hartmann contributed some saves. Hoban junior middle Adam Weaver intervened with a kill, but DiSabato responded with a right side blast to back middle. That started a four point run to a 19-17 lead as Summers served a cross court ace to the left line, Van Volkenburg drilled a cross court blast that was dug to the back wall and he and Sellan teamed up on a block. And when the rally was halted by the net, DiSabato hit another kill off the block and Sellan ended a long volley with a spike through blockers. An exchange of errors advanced the score to 22-19, and Gruber advanced the Cardinals to game point with a tip and a termination. Back-to-back serving errors ended the game. Asked about the timeouts afterward, Farrell smiled and said, “In the first one I said ‘it comes down to passing and staying aggressive’, which worked okay for a bit. But in the second I said ‘Did you think they were going to give up or that they were going to hand this to you? No, they’re not going to…you have to earn every point one point at a time’”. He added “Then we said, ‘let’s do what got us here which is pass the ball great, spread out the offense, run multiple options and stay aggressive’. And after we started doing that, we turned it around.” St. Charles continued their aggressive ball control into game three, and after three ties, the last at 6-all, they pulled away for good. Farrell said later he felt it “was a major momentum change” when the Cardinals “came back after that adversity” in game two. Hoban scored first as the teams exchanged gifts. Kunig hammered a kill through Cardinal blockers and Sokol won out on a play at the net to put the Knights up 3-1. Sellan countered with a cross court blast, which he followed with a hit from the right that was dug out. The Cardinals fluttered ahead 5-3 when Van Volkenburg scored from back court, and Gruber smoked one down the left. But a 3-1 error run in favor of Hoban left things knotted at six. But the Cardinals quickly flew ahead 11-6 as Gruber slammed a termination to back middle and DiSabato blasted a Yurkovich backset off a block from the right. Summers holed a quick hit, and Gruber followed a Knights hitting error with a block. Hoban narrowed the gap to 14-12 thanks to Cardinal miscues followed by terminations by Weaver and Horth. But Van Volkenburg and Gruber answered with hammers and Yurkovich countered a point by Sokol with a dump to up the margin to 17-13. And after a kill by Antonucci, Summers scored on a delayed spike to an empty spot in the middle. Then the roof fell in for the Knights as they hit long and Gruber spiked down the line. On the next volley, Hoban saved a second dig from the edge of the bleachers, but Gruber was waiting at the net for a perfectly timed block. The Cardinals were four points from their first title at 21-14. A service error and an ace by Knights’ sophomore outside Spencer Dzurovcin postponed things briefly. But DiSabato got things rolling again with another kill off the block, this one from the left, and Summers tipped into a hole. Antonucci spiked through blockers in the middle, the teams exchanged errors, and Weaver kept Hoban alive at 24-19 with a spike to back left. Then Yurkovich set Sellan, whose blast down the middle slammed off a dig for game, match and state championship point. Farrell declined to single anyone out afterward, calling it “a whole team effort”. Winning the title was, he said, “a coming together of everyone, including the kids who sit our bench and practice against the starters, the coaches and the parents”. *********************************************************** Had the state title been decided based on crowd noise decibels, St. Charles would have been in trouble. Archbishop Hoban High School is located about ten miles down the road from Walsh Jesuit, and the Knights brought a large and enthusiastic contingent of students. Twelve of them sat in the front row, each wearing a letter that spelled out “Hoban Knights”.
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