Spikers Still Searching For Offense

Evanston’s volleyball team threw a block party Wednesday night in Northbrook.

But that wasn’t quite good enough for the Wildkits in their bid to break through for their first win of the Central Suburban League South division season.

Plenty of defense, but not enough offense, allowed Glenbrook North to slip past the Wildkits in three sets by scores of 25-20, 16-25, 25-19. It marked the second straight conference loss for the visitors, now 7-6 overall.

Evanston netted a total 10 points --- unofficially --- directly off of blocks and set the Spartans back on their heels in the second set. But North didn’t back down at the net and 6-foot-6 junior Jake Brandner finally got untracked with six kills in the decisive third set after scoring just a total of four kills in the first two sets.

The Spartans (6-3, 1-1) built a 13-8 advantage midway through the final set and Evanston couldn’t get any closer than four points the rest of the way.

Veteran ETHS head coach Stanley Antoine might have his best blocking team ever. But he knows no prep volleyball team can count strictly on defense for points.

“Blocking is definitely one of our strong points,” Antoine agreed. “Now we’re trying to play better defense built around that blocking, and we’re also trying to get more consistent on offense.

“This is a glass-half-full-type situation for us. We have the talent. But we need to get better at finding kills when we’re in crunch time (in a match). How do we get out of a rut when we’re in one? We’ll figure it out as we grow as a team. We have so many guys who haven’t played together. Now, the club season is like eight or nine months long and some of our (current) players know their opponents better than they know their own teammates. So the longer we play together, the more consistent we’re going to be.”

Wednesday, the Kits showcased a balanced offense led by junior Max Amat (6 kills, 2 blocks). Derrick Nelson and Arimus Mosley contributed 5 kills apiece and Charlie Frisch and Pascal Juhnke each added 4. Sophomore middle Arad Takioobighash registered 4 blocks against the Spartans.

GBN took control of the first set with a 5-0 run after a back-row kill by the explosive Frisch brought Evanston fans to their feet, trailing just 16-15. But a missed serve shifted the momentum back to the host team and a ballhandling error by ETHS accounted for the 25^th point.

The Wildkits regrouped and reclaimed the momentum in the second set, bursting out to a 20-8 lead. Their last gasp in the final set came on a poor Spartans’ pass, drawing them within 22-18, and then the winners responded with three points at the net.

Antoine knows that making a dent in the CSL South division standings this spring won’t be easy.

“I think this is the best conference in the state,” he said, “and I mean both divisions. Top to bottom every team is a competitive team, capable of competing for a regional or a sectional (title). But we’d rather see very tough matches all the way through to get ready for (postseason) May volleyball.”