Wheeling turned the serve into a devastating offensive weapon by placing a half dozen aces in a 15-12, 15-4 victory over Mid-Suburban North rival Wheeling.
Dan Ahern started a flurry in the second game when his serve gave the host Bison a 6-3 advantage. While serving four consecutive points, Brent Agran notched an ace and forced a poor pass on another. Buffalo Grove (9-4, 4-1) then built a 12-4 lead off a David DeVoss ace.
It seemed quite fitting Matt Aiello ended the evening with a final serve that could not be returned.
“We’ve been preaching serving the past two weeks,” coach Kyle Reid noted. “We set up a point system for serving. You can earn points for an ace or a serve that the setter cannot get to. We wanted to take their offense out of the game, and we were able to do that in the second game.”
Wheeling (1-12, 0-5) scratched and clawed through most of the first game and held a 10-7 lead after Erik Mansfield scored on a pair of blocked shots. Buffalo Grove rallied to take a 12-11 lead off an Aiello kill and Agran’s first ace of the day. Wheeling tied the score, but Aaron Taggart blasted his own ace to put the Bison on top to stay. Aiello closed the first game with a crosscourt kill.
“I was pleased with the way our setters played defense,” Reid said. “Brent Agran went on an all-out sprint to get to a couple balls. When you score points like that, it invigorates the crowd and gets the team pumped.”
Reid also praised Aiello, who posted one of his best all-around games of the season with nine kills, 20 assists off 40 of 41 set attempts, six block-kills and an ace.
Scott Miller pace the Bison with 10 kills.
Mike Pietrusiewicz and Matt Koelper each recorded seven kills for Wheeling.
