Spartans Down Giants to Sweep Season Series

A three-set loss to Glenbrook North (GBN) in the schools' first matchup of the season gave Highland Park's boys volleyball team plenty of hope heading into Tuesday's rematch at home.

However, a balanced and consistent GBN attack was too much for the Giants to handle as the Spartans downed Highland Park in straight sets (25-22, 25-13) and reclaimed first place of the Central Suburban League (CSL) North heading into Thursday's rematch at Niles North.

"I hope this will be a wake-up call heading into the postseason," said the Giants head coach, Earl Alexander. "We've played pretty well for most of the season, played through a lot of adversity and today was just a tough day.

"Maybe we put too much pressure on ourselves, feeling that whoever was to win this match could win the conference. But it is what it is," he added.

"It's not over, but you want to try and be in control of the conference. We didn't want to go out and lost in straight sets to Glenbrook North," the coach said.

Highland Park traded points with GBN in the first set, eventually building an 8-5 lead before the Spartans started chipping away. Thanks in large part to the play of junior outside hitter, Zohaib Mevawalla, the Spartans grabbed their first lead of the match at 16-15 and never looked back.

Mevawalla would finish with seven kills while Patrick Bedford and Scott Schwartz tallied eight and seven kills, respectively.

"Zohaib had a great first game, leading us in kills, and after the first few points I felt that we did a good job of blocking their outside hitters and getting touches," GBN coach Chris Cooper said.

"We didn't get a lot of blocks, but we got a lot of touches and were able to dig more balls," he added. "Both of our setters are making good decisions and spreading the ball around, so it's hard for opposing teams to block us when we're able to set every player."

In the second set, Glenbrook North jumped on the Giants early and built a match-high 12-point lead before Highland Park finally scored on offense. For Cooper, his team executed nearly everything they discussed between sets.

"That's what we talked about, that if we can come out with a quick start, they may just pack it in," said Cooper. "When we focus and we know that the team across the net can come back on us, I think that we play a little better."

Seniors David Ofer and Danny Holzman led the Giants' offense, but their efforts were not enough to overcome the team's mounting mistakes.

"We should have won the first set but we made a couple of unforced errors that hurt us, and in the second set, a lot of balls didn't bounce our way," said Alexander. "They brought their 'A-Game' and we didn't play as well as we could have.

"Still, we've played teams like this before--Barrington, Vernon Hills, Warren--so we can play with teams like this. It's just one of those matches where things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to," he said in reflecting on the match.

Highland Park will look to get back on track when it host Maine West on Thursday before taking part in the Vernon Hills Cougar Classic on Saturday.

1

2

GLENBROOK NORTH (22-8, 6-1)

25

25

HIGHLAND PARK (15-7, 5-2)

22

13