Wheaton-Warrenville Volleyball Takes Regional Championship Over Lyons

Lyons Township volleyball coach Joann Pyritz already led one Lions team to an upset over a No. 1 state team this school year—but the repeat wasn’t meant to be.

Wheaton Warrenville South boys volleyball team (35-2), Illinois' current no. 1 team, will compete against Glenbard East in the sectional semifinals Friday after defeating the LT Lions (22-15), 25-14, 25-17 on Monday night at York High School.

“This is a tough sectional,” said Pyritz. “We played pretty well last night [narrowly defeating Waubonsie Valley in three games.] We’d have liked to come out with a little better effort tonight, but that’s just the way it went.”

The high-flying Tigers battered down the Lyons serve-receive with powerful jump serves, forcing LT setter Jack Gouty to frequently scramble for mishit passes. The black and orange also successfully mixed crushing spikes with tricky tips, keeping the Lions consistently off-balance.

Tigers outside hitter Thomas Jaeschke put up a whopping four jump-serve aces, along with 10 kills and two blocks. Eric Luhrsen added two aces and four kills, and Michael Stefanski had eight kills and a block. Setter David Priest also had 25 assists and a tricky kill after faking a jump set.

For the Lions, Mark Hogan had four kills and two blocks, and Jack O’Malley also had four kills. Gouty had 14 assists.

The first game was a quick runaway for the Tigers, but in the second, the Lions made a brief charge, winning two consecutive thrilling 45-second rallies at 15-10 and 15-11. The team nearly pulled within two, but Gouty’s trick dump was called back for a carry and the Lions never again threatened.

“I thought that we played pretty consistently at times, but we had a few mental let-downs,” said Tigers coach Bill Schreier, referring pointedly to an incident where a free ball dropped in the middle of the Wheaton-Warrenville court. “They’re not going to be satisfied with this… But I thought that we were able to counter [LT] today.”

The Tigers move on to play Glenbard East at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora.