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Sports
Dealing with adversity : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisDealing with adversity
| With revised lineups, Oswego East boys' volleyball team takes Game 1, but Panthers rally to win tiebreaker
| by Kristin Sharp
| 5/3/2012
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With lineup changes on both sides of the court, it was a drawn out battle between the District 308 boys' volleyball teams.
Oswego struggled to find its rhythm in Game 1, but recovered in the second game to force a tiebreaker and eventually defeat host Oswego East 21-25, 25-22, 25-14 in Tuesday's Southwest Prairie Conference match.
"We have people playing positions they're not used to playing and that always feeds into the rivalry too," Oswego head coach Amie West said. "This is one of Eric (Straughn's) first times he's ever started against an Oswego East team in the four years he's been there and all those nerves feed into this. It's always an emotional night. They calmed down, got into their rhythm about halfway through game two and settled down."
Oswego has been without three starters including its setter and libero for the last three games, but the Panthers have won two of their last three to remain 7-2 in SPC play. With Tuesday's win, Oswego is now 15-6-3 overall.
Oswego East fell to 0-9 in conference play and is 6-18-1 overall.
"The biggest thing for us is we can't give up a 5-1 lead, 8-2 - every game we're averaging three to eight service errors," Oswego East head coach Jim Mueller said. "You can't make that up. If we didn't make those errors, we would have beat them, no doubt. We beat ourselves. They came back and fought hard. I wasn't disappointed. We had the momentum and we just let it go."
Although Oswego opened Game 1 with an 11-4 lead, it didn't take long for Oswego East to tie the match. The Wolves received a sideout after an errant Panther serve, and with sophomore Sam Izzo behind the service line, Oswego East went on a 12-0 run to turn an 11-4 deficit into a 17-11 lead.
"He's got a bright future," Mueller said. "There was a lot of pressure on him and he stepped up to the plate. He usually doesn't serve, but with (Ryan) Passini not here, he had to serve and it worked out well. I was happy to see that."
Oswego committed two errors to get the Oswego East run started, Izzo was credited with an ace and older brother Blake Izzo rattled off five kills and a block during the stretch. Oswego called a timeout following Blake Izzo's attack and Oswego senior Kevin Oppe scored the next point for the Panthers.
"We've been working on blocking, and our blocking was really good," Mueller said. "Blake Izzo had a really good game tonight. I challenged him before the game to be the first team to beat Oswego; we can do it. We fell a little short, but I'm proud of their effort."
Oswego East never gave up its lead, however, despite the Panthers clawing back within two, 17-15. A tipped ball landed out of bounds for Oswego and a passing error pushed the Wolves ahead 23-16.
Oswego pulled within three (24-21) on senior Freddy Miller's kill, but Sam Izzo finished the game with a well-placed attack for the 25-21 Oswego East win.
Oswego opened Game 2 on a 6-1 run and the Wolves called a timeout trailing 9-3, but once again Oswego East pulled back into the game.
Oswego East senior Adam Reier's kill gave the Wolves a 9-8 deficit and senior Collin Buber's ace serve tied the scoreboard at 10. The game see-sawed with Oswego leading 17-15 before senior Kyle Weiskircher's point, and Sam Izzo's tipped ball tied the scoreboard at 18.
The game was tied at 19 and 20 before Oswego sent over a pair of kills to lead 22-20. The Panthers committed two net errors for a 23-22 score, but Oswego East's next serve sailed out of bounds and Oppe capped off the game with a kill for a 25-22 Panther win.
With the match now in a decisive Game 3, Oswego once again jumped out to a 6-1 lead thanks to three early errors by the Wolves. Miller recorded another kill and Oppe's tip kill put Oswego ahead 9-6.
Oswego East forged ahead and Blake Izzo came up with another attack to create an 11-8 score. But that was as close as the Wolves could get as the Panthers pulled away 16-9 before Mueller called a timeout.
Oswego senior Danny McGuire and Oppe combined for a strong block at the net and the Panthers enjoyed a 19-10 lead before giving up two points on errant hits. Oswego nearly sealed its match win before a lift call, but two miscues by the Wolves clinched Oswego's 25-14 win in Game 3.
"This is our third game in this type of lineup, so they're getting better at it," West said. "They're practicing hard. We have Plainfield Central and that's a big game coming up, especially for conference. It's an important game for us and we need to be focused the entire time."
Oswego will visit Plainfield Central today, Thursday, at 5:30 p.m. before a four-match homestand that will take place in the OHS fieldhouse due to the damaged court in the main gym.
Oswego will host SPC leader Minooka next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. with Plainfield North (May 10), Romeoville (May 15) and Plainfield South (May 17) to close out the regular season.
"Once we get some of our players back, we're really going to be working on running our offense and getting ready for regionals," West said. "They're doing a good job. This has been difficult for them, but they're working together."
Oswego East, meanwhile, will host Romeoville today, Thursday, at 5:30 p.m. before hosting Plainfield Central next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the final home game. The Wolves will visit Plainfield South (May 10), Minooka (May 15) and Plainfield East (May 17) to close out their regular season on the road.
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