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Sports

Tassler, Bonamarte lead Libertyville

Libertyville High School's boys volleyball team is making progress.

Libertyville High School's senior class has some volleyball players who have been around for awhile. Eric Handrich is an outside hitter while Eric Banduch is a middle hitter. Bryan Bonamarte has his blocking skills down, his dream down the road is to serve this country in the U.S. Marines. The biggest Wildcat of them all is 6-foot-11 Keegan McAuliffe who is seeing some court time. And libero Scott Cooper is out there to play defense.

Libertyville boys volleyball coach Steve Rochon does have some advice for his 12th-graders. This is your last time playing high school sports so have some fun and play hard.

Wednesday night at home was another episode of rivalry night. A good crowd was in the stands to view Vernon Hills and Libertyville. And after a quick start by the Wildcats (11-8), Vernon Hills stormed to a pair of 25-14 wins. And that 25-14, 25-14 victory told everyone that the visitors won easily.

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"I don't think they even broke a sweat,'' Rochon said. "They don't even need to take a shower."

In other words, Rochon wasn't the least bit pleased with his team's performance.

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"This group has worked too hard to evolve into being a good team,'' Rochon said. "This was our second opportunity with Vernon Hills and we did nothing with it. What are we afraid of?"

The Wildcats looked ready to go at the start when Bonamarte had a block kill and Handrick added a kill. That was the extent of the offense as the Cougars took away the momentum.

"This is a wonderfully competitive situation,'' Rochon said. "We usually get up for it. We were in brain lock tonight."

Set two was more of the same. The senior Tassler did fight back with a few kills of his own.

"Tassler was aggressive offensively,'' Rochon said.

Obviously with 11 wins on the schedule already, Libertyville is a competitive team. Even Vernon Hills libero David Swanson checked in with a compliment for the Wildcats.

"They kept playing,'' Swanson said. "We definitely get up for playing them because they are from the same district. Our coach gets excited about it."

These Wildcats do have some key juniors as well. Teddy Kopacz is the team's setter. He had nine assists on Wednesday. Both Brandon Leatherwood and Rob St. Claire can put the ball away on offense. Also helping the Wildcats this spring are John Kumorowicz, Nick Christy, Stewart Zacher and Stefan Vidovich.

"We have hit a crossroads in the season,'' Rochon said. "This is not a pattern."

After a match with North Chicago on Friday, the Cats host an invitational on Saturday with teams such as Maine East and Lincoln Way North.

 

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