Game of the Week: L-Way East Topples Marian Catholic in Boys Volleyball Opener

After battling against teammates in practice for the last couple of weeks, both the Lincoln-Way East and Marian Catholic boys volleyball teams were eager to face some new competition.

After the Griffins dominated the first game, 25-13, the second game was hotly contested. East eventually prevailed by a score of 29-27 and took the season-opening match in straight sets.

“I told the guys if we played the way we did in the second game in the first game we would have been in a lot better shape,” Marian Catholic first-year coach Bob Piekarski said. “We have to eliminate our mistakes.”

With the Griffins tied 9-9 in the second game, Gavin Wright stepped up and served brilliantly, powering East to a 13-9 lead.

“He is a returning senior that didn’t play club in the winter, so he is little behind the rest of the guys,” Griffins coach Kris Fiore.  “He is really athletic, though, and really impressed us with his ability, especially with trying to catch up."

Since it was the first match of the season Fiore tried to get a lot of his guys some playing time.

“I wanted to get a lot of guys experience who have never played on the varisty level and also let them go real close to the end to see how they would react to a close situation,” he said.

Greg Magrum of the Griffins jumped off to a good start, just as he had hoped, and was particularly effective with his serves.

“I want to focus on serving and being more of an offensive threat on the serving side," he said. "It was good to get out there let it all loose."

Wright hopes that his opening impressions will open the coaches' eyes to what he can do.

“I wanted to show them I can be an asset to the team,” he said.

Leaders for the Griffins included Magrum (7 kills, 2 aces), Wright (13 digs) and Austin Royer (7 assists).

For the Spartans, Will Craft had six kills, six digs and six blocks.