Elk Grove ends Buffalo Grove’s win streak
Is it possible to have a playoff atmosphere in the first game of the Mid-Suburban East boys volleyball season?
Tuesday night at Buffalo Grove, the answer was definitely yes.
Visiting Elk Grove, playing more like it was early June than early April, stunned BG 22-25, 25-20, 29-27 and in the process ended the Bison’s 40-game conference winning streak.
BG’s last loss came in the final East game of the 2007 season.
“I’m so excited now, I’m shaking,” said Elk Grove junior Matt McKenna, a natural libero who stepped in to play outside hitter for the first time Tuesday due to a recent Grens roster change.
“We had confidence tonight. We knew that if we could just get the ball to Jeff (EG senior setter Miceli), he would set up our offense and we could finish.”
The hard-hitting tandem of Michael Kawa (21 kills, 14 digs, 3 blocks) and Aaron Kraus (16 kills) sparked the Grens.
“I have the utmost respect for (BG coach) Matt Aiello and his program,” said Elk Grove coach Dan Windholz, “so this win was huge for us.”
Matt Bloom led the Bison with 7 kills and 10 assists.
“We had spurts of good volleyball tonight but I thought overall the play was very sloppy, which is uncharacteristic of us,” said Aiello. “We’ve got a new lineup, so there are going to be some growing pains.”
After the teams traded wins in the first two sets, BG broke out in game 3 behind the hitting of 6-foot-7 senior Sam Wacker (7 kills) to take a commanding 19-13 lead, a usually insurmountable deficit in the era of rally scoring.
But after a time out, Elk Grove rallied to tie the game at 20.
“We believed — that was the key,” said Kawa. “Everybody stepped up together as a team.”
“We weren’t playing good defense (in the deciding game) up to that point,” added Windholz. “But after the timeout, everyone came out and came up with a great dig or a great pass.”
With the score tied at 24, Elk Grove fought off 3 match points with some incredible play on defense, then closed out the match with two straight Kawa kills as the Grenadiers celebration began in earnest.
Miceli added 41 assists for the winners.
“Before the game,” said Kraus, “coach Windholz told us that no matter what, we were going to beat BG tonight. We all believed.”
“They had a great run,” added Kawa, “but somebody had to stop that streak.”