The fourth-ranked Prospect Knights may have won their battle against Carmel Wednesday night, but a critical injury may ultimately cost them the war in the boys volleyball Barrington sectional.
Senior setter Kevin Hallen led host Prospect to a 15-4, 15-6 win over the Corsairs with 21 assists. The victory sets up a showdown with Mid-Suburban rival Palatine, a 15-8, 15-13 winner over Mundelein, in the sectional semi-finals Friday night at Barrington. But the Knights may go into the fight without Hallen, who suffered a sprained ankle during the second game against Carmel.
“He landed on another kid’s foot. He came down on his foot and rolled the ankle, and that can be nasty,” said Prospect coach Mike Riedy. “It’s swollen up to the size of a grapefruit in the five minutes since he sat down. Hopefully we can get him back in two days, otherwise we are going to be hurting.”
Prospect (31-3) got off to a sluggish start, falling behind 4-2 in game one after two consecutive aces by Carmel’s Paul Johnson (8 kills). The Knights responded with 13 consecutive points, and jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second game to put Carmel (17-10) in a hole from which they would never recover.
Chris Pontarelli led Prospect’s attack with 12 kills, while Kevin Kowal added eight. Chris Faust and Tim Weidner each chipped in seven kills apiece, but all postgame concerns were centered on Hallen.
“When Kevin went down, I think everybody did a good job of picking up their game and compensating for him not being there,” said Riedy. “If (Hallen) is not healthy for Friday, we have to figure out what we are going to do to compensate.”
Palatine (25-12) dominated the first match against Mundelein in the nightcap, but had to claw back from a 9-4 deficit in the next match to advance to Friday’s semi-finals. Mundelein (27-6-3) built their lead behind the play of Justin Cleland (10 kills) and Mark Caravello (29 assists).
But the Mustangs faltered down the stretch, committing eight point-producing errors during a 10-0 Pirate run. A spike from senior Dave Zech put Palatine ahead, and though they had to weather a late Mundelein surge while stuck on point no. 14, the team was able to secure the victory.
“Sometimes you get stuck on a point. I think that’s volleyball on occasion,” said Palatine coach Curt Pinley. “At 14 I could tell we were stuck. I wasn’t real concerned, but I had to call a timeout when (Mundelein) got to 13. I said ‘let’s all just focus, get one good hit and we only need one serve in.’ And we went out and did that.”
Dan Gavin paced Palatine with 13 kills. Senior Jason Betke contributed 19 assists.
