The boys volleyball team lost in two sets to Mundeleien on Wednesday, May 5; it was their first conference loss of the season, dropping their conference record to 2-1. 

In the first set, the team got down early and staged a small comeback but ultimately lost 25-19. However, the second set was a different story. Due to the must-win-by-two rule, the game, which is typically played to 25, ended up 32-30 in favor of the Mustangs. 

“It’s exhausting mentally and physically,” said junior starter Reece Wiatrowksi, referencing overtime. “A normal game is played to the 25, so when we’re going this many points over, it really takes a toll. Also the mental part, you could be up and about to win but when you lose the point, you need to be able to bounce straight back to get the next point to win, which we weren’t able to do.”

The game was tied at every score from 23 all the way up to 30 before Mundeleien finally closed the deal. The energy on the floor and in the stands was electric, as nearly every point could seal the win for either side. 

Despite the loss, the players saw this game as a building block for the rest of the season.  

“Our team did pretty well today,” junior Oliver Sikora said. “We had a lot of energy coming into the game and we played hard in the second set, even though we lost 32-30. I think we still had a lot of success.”

Head Coach Jennifer Smith echoed this view: “Overall, I’m happy with the way that we competed. Our second set was a lot more solid, confident and competitive. And I was really happy with the level of aggressiveness that we played with.” 

The overtime period nearly didn’t happen. The Wildcats trailed 21-16 towards the end of the second set. After a few crucial blocks by senior Grant Williams, junior Ethan Lindberg had spikes from the outside two points in a row, which seemed to change the team’s energy. 

“I was just excited because in the first set, I didn’t really hit well,” Lindberg said about his big moment. “I had two errors, and then I got blocked once. So just coming out there and getting two in a row really boosted our energy. And we just kept that excitement and pushed to the end.”

At the beginning of the second set, senior Jonathan Marquardt served a six-point run for the Wildcats. This run featured big blocks from Williams, along with sets from Lindberg to give spike opportunities to Wiatrowksi and Sikora. However, after this run that put Libertyville up by five, Mundelein scored 16 of the next 22 points. 

“It was very up and down,” Wiatrowski said. “Whenever we had some great plays, we would get really excited, but then we didn’t really convert that into the next point.”

His teammate, junior Patrick Akers, saw a positive side to this consistency struggle. “That extra mental fortitude will be something that we’ll just have to acquire throughout the games,” he said. “It makes me excited because it’s only up from here.”

Like everything else in the world, the Covid-19 pandemic had and is still having a profound impact on the boys volleyball team. Last year, their season ended the day after tryouts due to the statewide lockdown in March. 

“Coming to tryouts last year and being able to get on a team, and then the second we’re on the team, the season gets canceled kind of just broke our hearts,” Lindberg said. 

Even with the season in full swing this year, the pandemic has proven a challenge to the coaching staff. Crucial tasks like keeping the teams apart for capacity restrictions, balancing mitigations and protocols, and enforcing social distancing are completely new for coaches. 

“It’s honestly a logistical nightmare for a head coach with all the additional protocols that we’re going through and dealing with,” Coach Smith said. “I personally don’t get to coach as much, which is my favorite thing to do.”

The most significant impact of Covid this season on the team is that two of the starting players were not at the Mundeleien game because they were forced into quarantine due to contact tracing.

With the conference tournament coming up in a little less than a month, Lindberg hopes the team can “get our consistency back and get back to full health.”

Akers said the team’s goals to finish off the season are “keeping our heads in the game, picking up our fellow teammates and getting better throughout the season.”