Fourth-place finish pleases Wolves' coach

Oswego East's Joey Kowal slips his spike just over the hands of Fenton's George Gutierrez Saturday at Plainfield North.
(Tyler Stoffel/For The Beacon News)

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PLAINFIELD -- Under new coach James Milkert, the Oswego East boys volleyball team placed fourth at Plainfield North's Invite on Saturday.

Joliet Township won the eight-team tournament after beating Riverside-Brookfield in three games while Plainfield North topped the Wolves in two for third place.

"That was great," Milkert said of placing fourth. "This is my first year with the boys, and to my understanding, they haven't been very good in the past, so I'm very proud of them. They've come a long way in the past two and a half weeks. They'll get there."

The Wolves (2-4) finished 2-1 in pool play in the morning. They started the day with Plainfield North beating them 25-9, 25-12. The next match was better, as Oswego East easily handled TF North 25-6, 25-8.

"That showed we can go out there and be a really good team and take care of business," Oswego East senior Joey Kowal said.

In the final match of pool play, Oswego East came from behind to beat Fenton 22-25, 25-22 and 15-5. In Game 1, once the Bison cracked a 7-7 knot they never trailed again. In Game 2, The Wolves led the entire way and ended it on back-to-back kills from Joe McGavin. In the third game, they scored the first four points and never looked back.

"They came back and proved to themselves they can do it," Milkert said about the Wolves against Fenton.

"(Beating Fenton) was huge," added junior Zach Silva, who made the all-tournament team. "That was crazy. They were really scrappy."

Unfortunately for the Wolves, that was the last match they won the rest of the day. After beating Joliet 25-16 in the first game, the Steelmen won the next two, 25-10 and 25-17.

Right after that, Oswego East had to play Plainfield North again. This match was better than the first, but the Tigers still beat their Southwest Prairie Conference opponents, 25-22 and 25-12. Game 1 was tied four times toward the end until the Wolves ended the game on three consecutive hitting errors.

In Game 2, Plainfield North's Eric Sheblien got on a roll with his serving in the middle of the game, and Oswego East couldn't recover. He ended up serving nine consecutive points.

Kowal finished the tournament with 30 kills, while McGavin and Silva had 25 kills each. Genc Arifi dished out 80 assists.

Boys Volleyball: Plainfield North Invite