Belvidere Bucs boys’ volleyball teams take home wins

By Eric Hipp

Reporter

BELVIDERE – Thursday April 28 was a good day for the Belvidere Bucs boys’ varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams.

Both varsity and junior varsity teams won against their opponents, the Harlem Huskies, at the home games in the Melvin J. Brown Gymnasium.

It was the first win of the season for the junior varsity team. It took three games for the junior varsity team to overcome its rivals, the Huskies.

All three games were hard fought and the close scores with the close scores reflecting the too-close-for-comfort wins.

Belvidere won the first junior varsity game 25-22 then dropped the second game to the Huskies 21-25. This forced a third game, a rubber match, between both teams.

Belvidere took the lead early and never relinquished it. Belvidere won the third game 25-16 to take the set from Harlem.

The Belvidere Bucs boys’ varsity volleyball team only needed two games to dispatch the Huskies.

The win came with impressive performances from the Bucs team.

For instance, Trent Boland had six kills and two digs, while teammate Chris Katzel had 11 assists, two aces, and two digs.

Mark Silis had four kills and Sam Murphy had five kills and seven digs.

Alex Robalo had seven assists, two kills, and four digs.

Despite the Bucs efforts to maintain a clean lead, the lead changed hands several times throughout the game. Harlem closed the gap to three points near the end of the game.

Soon, the teams were tied at 21 points each. Belvidere dug deep and pulled out the win 25-23 in game one.

Belvidere started strong in the second game taking a quick 6-1 lead. Later, they stretched the lead to nine points at one point leading 13-4.

The Huskies mounted several small rallies but never seriously threatened Belvidere’s lead. The Bucs won the second game 25-20 and took the match from Harlem.