BOYS VOLLEYBALL: Repeat title chances vanish for Central boys

By Jason Arndt
Editor

A year after the Westosha Central High School boys volleyball squad cruised through its Southern Lakes Conference slate, the Falcons ran into a buzz saw in 2017, when they faced Burlington on two occasions.

Like the first meeting, the Falcons saw a similar result Oct. 12, when the visiting Demons defeated Westosha Central in four sets, 25-20, 22-25, 25-23, 29-27.

With the loss, the defending champion Falcons conceded the SLC title to Burlington, which improved to 6-0.

In the tightly contested match, coach Wayne Schultz admits his Falcons’ team underestimated the Demons front row, including Malik Tiedt, who had 15 kills.

“We competed well, Burlington played really well tonight,” Schultz said. “Their right side and middles hurt us more than we thought they were going to.”

After the Demons won the first set by five points, the Falcons bounced back to even the match, courtesy of a 25-22 set two victory.

Despite leading by as much as three points in the third set, the Falcons could not hold on, eventually dropping the set 25-23.

“We just fell a little bit short,” said Schultz, whose team dropped to 5-2 in the SLC. “It always gets down to one point, especially when you have a tight match like tonight.”

Although the Falcons lost, junior Joey Michelau had his best varsity performance, chipping in 12 kills, adding nine digs along with three blocks.

“I thought Joey Michelau played his best varsity match ever, he really rose as a varsity player tonight,” said Schultz.

Michelau and senior Mason Welter, a 6-foot-5 middle hitter, played critical roles in the Falcons’ second set win.

Welter, who had a team-leading 14 kills and added four blocks, sealed the set two win with a spike.

In the third game, courtesy of Drew Pesick, who had five blocks, the Demons were able to come away with a 25-23 set three win.

Then, in the fourth game, both teams waged in a back-and-forth battle, including ties at 24, 25, 26 and 27.

After Tiedt produced back-to-back spikes, giving the Demons a 27-26, Falcons’ Jason Olson and Michelau answered with kills of their own.

Olson finished with six kills and two blocks.

Burlington then produced three kills, including Pesick’s decisive spike to give the Demons the match at 29-27.

“Westosha played a great game, but we really wanted this win,” said Burlington coach Mike Jones. “We’ve come full circle this season and become a much better team offensively and defensively. Our ability to stay in the moment and not let a couple points here or there fluster us really is where a lot of our success comes.”

Alex Salerno, a junior, bolstered the front row with a team-leading six blocks and added nine kills.

While Muff set the tone with 40 assists, Jack Polick contributed defensively, where he dug in for 24 digs.


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