WW South boys volleyball dominates Wheaton North in straight sets

WHEATON – Wheaton Warrenville South senior Theodor Apavaloaiei is a solid player, but because the Tigers lineup is so stacked this year, he doesn’t get a lot of playing time.

Despite not seeing much court time, though, he obviously still has a ton of fans.

Late in WW South’s dominating 25-16, 25-15 DuKane Conference boys volleyball win at Wheaton North on Tuesday night, Apavaloaiei was inserted into the lineup for the first time.

That brought probably the biggest cheer of the night from the large crowd, and also from his teammates.

“He’s a great kid, one of those perfect teammates that you want,” said Tigers coach Bill Schreier. “Always supportive, always has everyone’s back. Crosstown Classic tonight, and it was good we could get him in there as a senior to see what he could do.”

With WW South leading 24-13 in the second set, Apavaloaiei almost came away with the match-point kill, but his attempt skimmed the top of the net and somehow fell back on the Tigers side of the floor.

The Tigers closed out the victory a moment later on a Wheaton North hitting error.

“He’s actually one of our best players,” said WW South junior outside hitter Simon Bratt. “He’s hilarious, he’s a great teammate, great in practice and just a hard-working guy.”

It was Bratt who led the way for the Tigers. He had a match-high 15 kills, three blocks and three aces.

“We’re just playing pretty well right now,” said Schreier. “I think we did a good job of taking control in the first set, and we never relinquished control. That’s something we’ve talked about all season, trying to see if we can force teams to elevate their games.

“It’s one of the challenges we face, and tonight was one of the first times we were able to do that.”

Apavaloaiei said it was some advice from his coach that led to the big win.

“Our coach always says this, we usually start slow and we let (the opposition) score too many points early. But today we just killed it right away and kept applying pressure. We took our coach’s advice and just ran with it.”

Wheaton North started fast — senior outside hitter Ben Boyce had a couple of kills as the Falcons raced to an early lead — but two consecutive aces from WW South senior Mark Gheorghita helped the Tigers overcome the home team and win set one.

Then in set two, it was more prowess for WW South from the service line. Gheorghita hit one more, and Bratt served up all three of his aces in the second set to pace his team to the victory.

The match was a battle for first place in the DuKane, as both teams came in undefeated in conference play. WW South is now 19-3 overall and 4-0 in conference, while Wheaton North fell to 14-10, 2-1.

Falcons coach John Noe said the relative youth of his team might have played a factor in the defeat.

“Wheaton Warrenville South came here ready to play,” said Noe, “and unfortunately they got the better of us. They have some very strong servers that (caused problems) for our serve-receive.

“It was just tough for us to get in a groove, get into a rhythm. We don’t have many senior starters, and when that’s the case, the sophomores and juniors are learning what it takes to compete at a high level.

“This was a lesson in mental toughness, so we have to phrase it as a learning experience.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250429/boys-volleyball/boys-volleyball-ww-south-takes-dukane-lead-by-sweeping-rival-wheaton-north/