Boys Volleyball: North's Dreams Come Up One Win Short

HOFFMAN ESTATES – For a team that finished third in the DuPage Valley Conference and only managed a six seed at sectionals, ’s boys volleyball team sure made quite a run in the postseason.

The run came up one win short of the ultimate goal, the state championship, but the Huskies take the second-place trophy back home to Naperville. After winning their semifinal match over Vernon Hills, 25-17, 30-28, in the morning to reach the championship match, North fell to Sandburg, 25-15, 25-16 Saturday.

“Right now, it stings,” North senior Shane Witmer said. “It doesn’t even feel like we lost the state finals. It will sink in the next couple of days that we finished second in the state. As frustrated as we all are now, you can’t be upset with that.”

It took yet another win over a nationally ranked team, Vernon Hills, to even reach the finals. The Cougars rode a 23-match winning streak into the match, but North was dominant until the very end. The Huskies won, 25-17, in the first and were up, 23-17, in the second before Vernon Hills made it interesting.

“You always get afraid when you’re stuck on 23 and you have to get those last two points,” North coach Nate Bornancin said. “These guys are resilient.”

Early in the title match, North was hanging with a Sandburg team that lost only three matches all season. The Huskies led, 6-5, and a Witmer kill tied things up at 7-7 before things started to unravel. Runs of 5-0 and 7-0 with North making several errors ultimately cost the Huskies the first set, 25-15.

“We were with them the first seven or so points, and I thought it was going to be a great game,” Witmer said. “They got a few big kills and blocks, which we knew they were going to do with the caliber of players that they have. We just couldn’t respond. They went on some big runs that we couldn’t come back from.”

Playing with noticeably more energy than the Eagles’ first win over North, a three-set triumph on March 26, Sandburg took control of Game 2 from the outset and never relinquished it. A dominant 11-4 run that featured eight kills, a block and an ace doomed the Huskies.

“We just couldn’t get any rhythm,” Bornancin said. “We were out of sync.”

North took an unconventional path to a second-place trophy. The Huskies struggled early on in the season, missed star junior hitter Spencer Sauter due to injury for the majority of the season and had to scratch and claw just to earn a six seed in a loaded sectional.

“I can just look back on the season and smile,” Bornancin said. “Especially these last two weeks. We had our ups and downs throughout the season. Guys were injured and out and other guys had to step up to get us to where we are. The matches that we won to get here, they definitely deserve to have that state trophy and that medal. We can play with anyone. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have it today in the championship match.”