Boys Volleyball: Carmel battles past St Patrick

Updated: May 10, 2012 11:17PM

No doubt Carmel was flying high after stopping Benet on Tuesday. Thursday’s guest was East Suburban Catholic Conference foe St. Patrick. The Corsairs remained in the hunt for the conference crown with a 25-21, 14-25, 25-18 victory in Mundelein.

“That’s a typical scrappy St. Patrick team,’’ Carmel coach Kevin Nylen said. “They definitely took advantage of our lulls in the second game. Their setter (John Budzinski) did a nice job. They ran a couple of back slides.”

In the decisive third set, Carmel (21-12, 6-1) regained its composure and raced to an early lead. The power hits of Henry Dominicis helped the Corsairs get off to a good start.

“We’ve only have seen two kids this year who hit the ball as hard as Henry,’’ Nylen said. “He smokes the ball and it was his 18th birthday tonight.”

Dominicis finished with 10 kills. Senior Graham Misak went into serve with his team up just 18-16 in the final set. Aided by big plays on offense from Zach Rappe and Dominicis, Carmel’s lead expanded to 24-17. Kevin Fitzgibbons (11 kills) made the final hit to put this game away.

In St. Pats’ romp in set two, both Joey Williams and sophomore JP Berg played well.

Carmel senior setter Alex Dunlap notched 30 assists.

“It’s a great win for all 10 seniors,’’ Dunlap said. “I have so many weapons on this team. It helps that our passing is so good.”

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