Wolves volleyball drops sixth straight

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OSWEGO - Oswego East's boys volleyball team is in the midst of a six-match losing streak, and the Wolves are struggling to get out of the hole.

Loss No. 6 came Tuesday, 25-19, 25-16 to Plainfield North in Southwest Prairie Conference action. And the team knows that with the season heading into the home stretch, and the Wolves carrying a 4-11 overall mark and a 1-5 mark in the SPC, time is running out to turn the season around.

"The coaches have taught us everything that we need to learn," said senior outside hitter Joe McGavin, who paced the Wolves with 11 kills Tuesday. "They've gone over it numerous times. We just have to execute. When we're down a couple of points, it feels like 10. It's a chain reaction. Losing is never fun. You're never happy when you lose."

Coach James Milkert pointed to the struggles Oswego East is having in regards to countering other team's runs with streaks of their own. Early in Game 1, the Wolves were strong in that realm. They started the match up 3-0, allowed five straight points to the Tigers, and followed that with four of their own to hold a 7-5 lead.

But runs like that were hard to come by the rest of the night. After that point, the Wolves did not have a single run of more than two points, and Plainfield North was able to gradually pull away for wins in both games due to the lack of long runs.

"We are continually working on getting out and making runs to counter runs," Milkert said. "We have not proven the ability to do that yet. We give up runs of two our three, get a sideout, and we don't counter. That's something that we're struggling mightily to overcome right now. I'm on a loss on how to turn that around."

In Game 1, the Wolves last tie was at 11 before Plainfield North pulled away. Every time they served from that point on, the Tigers had at least two points every turn. Meanwhile, the Panthers had four straight serves that did not yield a point.

"We're just having trouble," McGavin said. "We're just lacking what it takes to go on runs right now. We just need to tighten our focus and control the ball more and talk and keep each other up."

Plainfield North jumped out to a 5-0 lead in Game 2 and never looked back, led mostly by sophomore middle blocker Jack Krieger. Krieger had four kills and a block as the lead moved to 9-4. He also ended the match with a kill.

Milkert said he will tinker with his rotation in practice the next two days in anticipation of the Wolves' rematch with Oswego on Thursday on the road. The Panthers beat East in the conference opener earlier this season.

Meanwhile, the team is trying to remain positive.

"We haven't played any team this year that we couldn't beat," McGavin said. "We beat ourselves all year. If we come out focused, I have no doubt that we can beat them."