This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Boys Volleyball: GBN Pays Back Niles North, Takes Control of CSL North

Glenbrook North avenged its only conference loss in a 25-23, 25-20 win.

This year Glenbrook North has had a different player take the starring role in seemingly every game.

Scott Schwartz filled the bill Thursday night against Niles North in the Spartans’ 25-23, 25-20 win. Schwartz, a senior middle hitter, led GBN with eight kills in a big Central Suburban League North win.

The Spartans (23-8) avenged their only CSL North loss and improved to 7-1 in the conference. This win, coupled with Tuesday’s sweep at Highland Park, puts GBN all alone at the top of the league.

Find out what's happening in Northbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Schwartz played big in the middle, factoring in three blocks, and mixed it up with powerful spikes and effective dinks. Despite the big stats, he deferred credit to the team’s defense.

“I think that our defense really stepped up which allowed for the middles to be run,” Schwartz said. “When our middles are being run it forces the other team to commit on us, which leaves one on ones on the outside. I think that everyone spreading the ball out consistently really helps our team so I think that was the difference.”

Find out what's happening in Northbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Schwartz led a balanced offensive attack. Zohalb Mevawalla had seven kills, Patrick Bedford had six and Glen Song added five. 

After falling down 5-1 in the first game the Spartans gradually turned it around. GBN took four points on Kyle Bedford’s serve to take a 21-17 lead and survived a late Vikings’ run when Schwartz put the game away with a dink.

“Scott had a good game,” coach Chris Cooper said. “The last time we played them our middles were effective and our outsides struggled, so I knew if we could keep our middles going this game and just get our outsides to play a little bit better then hopefully things would be different. That’s what happened.”

The second game was close until the Spartans pulled away with three straight serves from libero Connor Bolan, including a match-ending ace. Bolan keyed a clean defensive game for the Spartans.

“Defense is always huge for us because we have good offense, but our defense really sets up and compliments our offense,” Bolan said. “We have one of the best defenses in the state. I don’t think you’re going to beat us defensively.”

Cooper said the Spartans were more successful against Niles North this time because they made less service and hitting errors, which made it easier defensively.

With some inconsistent play and a number of different players stepping up offensively, Cooper has been forced to shuffle the lineup around most of the year. So does Cooper finally have it set?

“Today I do,” Cooper joked. “I feel like the lineup that we’ve been using this past week or so has been our best lineup to this date, but I do feel comfortable if we need to make a change. We’ve got guys on the bench that can play. We can move people around so if things stop working I’m confident that the change isn’t going to really bother us too much.”

Schwartz said he, too, didn't think the shifting bothers the team. They’re used to playing with everyone on the team from practice.

“We play really hard in practice because everyone is always out for a spot,” Schwartz said. “So you can be playing one lineup one day and I don’t think there’s any difference in comfort in a different lineup the next day.”

Things could be coming together just in time for the playoffs, which start May 23. The Spartans received the No. 2 seed for the Niles North Sectional and have defeated New Trier, Glenbrook South and now Niles North, the other top four seeds.

“This has been a huge week for us,” Bolan said. “Earlier in the season we were kind of inconsistent, but this week I think set the tone for us and our playoff run, hopefully to state.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?