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Boys volleyball: Another high point for Palatine

During pregame introductions at Wednesday night's Palatine-Glenbrook North boys volleyball regional final, Pirates senior Bryant Smith got some big-time encouragement from one of the team's littlest fans.

Young Sully Stark, one of coach Frank Stark's sons, ventured out on the court to give Smith a high-five.

And whether it was the spark provided by Sully, or just an overall great performance from the entire Pirates roster, Palatine put its foot on the gas and didn't let up the entire match.

The Pirates won 25-21, 25-20 to claim the regional title on the Spartans' home court and delay coach Stark's retirement.

Stark is stepping down as head coach after this season.

"Everything we're doing right now is for him," said Smith of Stark. "We want to do everything we can to make sure he has a great last year.

"He stuck around because he wanted to leave with our group. He saw the potential in us and I'm really grateful for that. We just want to go out and prove him right."

Senior Johnny O'Shea paced the Pirates with 7 kills, 8 digs and 3 blocks, while sophomore Nate Jones came up with 3 blocks as well.

"This means everything," said Jones, "especially for all the seniors on this team. I've got a couple more years left in the program so I'm playing for the seniors right now.

"We had the confidence coming in, we had the energy, we wanted to take this in two and we did that."

The first set see-sawed back and forth but Palatine gained control and a 22-19 lead when senior Camden Hill hit a kill of the block.

Then Jones came up with a big block and Glenbrook North hit a couple into the net to give the Pirates a 1-game lead.

Glenbrook North had the upper hand through most of set two, but a 4-point run put Palatine up by 4, and another Jones block set the Pirates ahead 23-18.

A Spartans hit out of bounds brought Palatine to match point, and after sweating out a couple of Glenbrook North kills, Hill had the final game-winner.

Pirates junior Curtis McLennan, who finished with 7 kills and was 10-of-11 from the service line with an ace, said his team won despite some uncharacteristic mistakes.

"We made some errors we don't normally make," said McLennan, "but we pulled through."

McLennan furnished 5 kills, setter Ben Rinella matched his jersey number with 22 assists, while Connor Nix had 11 digs and was 8-of-9 on serve.

And after the Pirates had received their regional championship plaque, Stark said he didn't mind at all that his "retirement" was put off awhile.

"I've said it all year, this is a special group of kids," said Stark. "A few years ago I thought I was done, but I knew had to hang around with these guys. It's a great group of seniors and a great group of underclassmen to support them.

"A very resilient group," added the coach. "We started slow last night when we played Wheeling - Wheeling played really, really well - so tonight we wanted to come out a little faster and a little harder. The kids knew it, and what they've really done well in the second part of the season is that they haven't let anything bother them. This was a lot of fun tonight."

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