Kennedy Boys Volleyball Slams Jericho in Straight Sets

It was bound to happen, sooner or later: the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. In this case, it was Kennedy and Jericho squaring off Tuesday on the volleyball court, each putting their perfect 5-0 records on the line.

And only one team walked off the court with that perfect record still unblemished: the Kennedy Cougars.

However, their win at Jericho High School was a hard-fought victory against a team whose skills they have come to respect.

"Jericho's a really, really good team," Kennedy coach Dennis Ringel said. "They've been one of our real rivals over the last couple of years."

Things got off to a shaky start for Kennedy as host team Jericho established an early 5-0 lead. The Cougars managed to finally get on the scoreboard with two big spikes, but seemed unable to make a real dent in the Jayhawks' armor.

However, a flurry of big hits saw Kennedy slowly start to catch up, and when the score hit 14-11, Jericho called for a time out to regroup. At 21-19, Jericho called for yet another. Kennedy was closing the gap with more aggressive net play.

No. 17, Brian O'Gorman, the tallest Cougar, made a difference whenever the rotation put him in the front row, easily stuffing multiple shots for some much-needed points.

A big spike placed Kennedy ahead for the first time, and an unforced error by Jericho ended the first set, 25-23.

The second set was the most tightly contested of the match. The two teams maintained a tight margin the entire set, at one point prompting a Jayhawk to angrily slam the game ball into the ground.

Cougar Jacob Tabman helped close the gap to 23-22. The Jayhawks coach got so incensed that he was awarded a red card; the ref penalized Jericho by awarding the Cougars a point, tying the set up 23-23.

A big ace gave the Cougars their second win, 25-23.

The third set saw a much more confident Kennedy slowly take Jericho apart. The Cougars took first blood and, despite solid opposition, never relinquished the lead.

The final score was Kennedy 25-21, winning the game in straight sets.

Coach Ringel spoke about how his team prepared for what he knew would be a tough challenge.

"In order to beat Jericho, we tried to make our plays at the net-block bigger, and try and be a more aggressive team," he said. "I thought we started off very sluggish, but we kind of morphed into that as the match went along. We became more tight and aggressive, and when we do that, we're very tough to beat."

Kennedy's Ben Hirschler said the Jericho game had been circled on the Cougars calendar.

"We knew this was our big game and we practiced all week," he said. "We started off a little shaky. I guess we were all a little nervous, but we played good, and we got the win."

Kennedy's next game is Friday, when they host Garden City.