Boys volleyball: Lockport bounces back against JCA

LOCKPORT – With some top players back from a team that won
31 matches last year, Lockport's boys volleyball team entered the season ranked among the state's best.

But just two weeks into the new year, the Porters found themselves with a 6-6 record, which was as many losses as they suffered during the entire 2017 season.

But if you think that caused panic in the Lockport camp, think again. Coach Nick Mraz upgraded the schedule to feature tournaments like last weekend’s Wheaton Warrenville South Tiger Challenge to bolster their claim that they can compete with Illinois’ elite.

After going 1-4 at South, which included a trio of three-set defeats, including one to highly-regarded Lincoln-Way East – the Porters hope to be battle-tested by the time that they compete in one of the state’s toughest sectionals at Brother Rice.

The Porters got off to a fast start and then held off a determined challenge by Joliet Catholic Academy in the second set to capture a 25-13, 25-20 nonconference victory in Monday’s matinée at Central gym.

“We just had to use that invite to grow, since we competed with the best of the state,” Mraz said. “Three of our four losses there went to three sets, and two of those three were 23-25, so we were right there. So that’s just going to make us that much better. Our schedule is very tough to start the year but now as we move forward, there should be some confidence there. This is a quality area so every night will be tough, but I thought we played well today and played with some confidence and finished better.

“We saw some holes and figured out some things and just have to use that moving forward, and it will make us that much better in May. It doesn’t seem like it, but we are a young team, since we only have four seniors. It’s just those four seniors are a big part of the team, and they’ve played on some great teams. So they’re going to be passing the torch and want to make sure that they end this year strong, so that’s extra motivation. They expect to win, not hope to win and are angry that we aren’t where we should be, and that stuff goes a long way.”

The Porters (7-6), who averaged 28 victories and had a 78 win percent in the past three seasons, were led by three seniors who’ve been a big part of that success. They include four-year athlete Anthony Pfeiffer (five aces, seven kills, nine assists) as well as Pat Surane (eight digs) and Kyle Dixon (three kills).

“We got to play really high-level teams, which was great,” Pfeiffer said. “We lost some but it was always close so I feel like with more practice and playing other competitive teams that we’ll move our level up with them. It’s good to get matches like that out of the way in the beginning because good teams exposed our weaknesses. I’m happy that we’re finally getting recognition. It’s been a long process, now we just have to prove what we have and that’s what this year is all about. Everyone cares about the team since they want us to do our best.”

Other top Porters contributors were Samien Alvarez (three kills) and Jacob Prince (seven assists). Michael Palumbo is the other senior on the Porters, who were moved east along with Lincoln-Way East and Lincoln-Way Central to join Marist, Sandburg and the hosts in the sectional tournament.

“We had a lot of good things going and went three games with some super-good teams but couldn’t finish the games,” Surane said. “There were some lulls in our offense, defense and serve-receive that we need to fix. But it gave us a good look at who the best teams are and seeing that we could compete with East was promising. We have a lot of young kids, so after a few more practices and more games, our team will come together a lot better. We have a lot of good power hitters, so if we can get our serve-receive down, we’ll be hard to stop.”

As for the Hilltoppers (3-4), new head coach Ryan Vozenilek likes a lot of what he’s seen so far and is excited about the future. He assisted longtime JCA coach Rhyen Staley and took over when Staley moved on to start up the men’s program at Concordia University Chicago.

Vozenilek has been encouraged by the play of individuals such as Henry Krzysciak, Dan Mangun, Dan Underwood and Max Toborg. All but the latter competed on Monday.

“They pushed toward the end, but I just need it to be a little bit sooner and right off the bat,” Vozenilek said. “Their skill level is very good and recently we had phenomenal serve-receive, but today, not so much. Their mentality is pretty good and they will push when they need to.

“Our main goal throughout this entire season is to win regionals. We want to be the team to do it because the last time they did it was in 2007. One of the reasons why I wanted to take this head coaching position is because their overall spirit as a team is probably one of the best that I’ve worked with. So when they’re on, they are fully committed and will go all out.”