Fifer, Eagles outlast Andrew

Updated: May 25, 2011 7:48PM

Sandburg coaches Sean Airola and David Vales can’t remember a time that the Eagles haven’t won a regional championship in boys volleyball.

Nothing has changed in that regard and a big reason why the Eagles continue to be a powerhouse was the play of setter Scott Fifer. Fifer recorded 20 assists as Sandburg moved past Andrew (25-16, 25-13) to win the Oak Forest regional.

The Eagles (34-3) will move on to its own sectional on Friday.

``Scott was phenomenal. He played great tonight,’’ Airola said. ``In the first game, he played great with mediocre passing to him and fed our hitters.’’

Andrew (20-14-1) and Sandburg battled back-and-forth with neither team taking more than a two point lead until Sandburg closed out the game with an 11-2 run. The main separation occurred when Kevin Groeper served five straight service points including three aces. The Eagles led 20-14 when he was done with his service.

``Kevin is one of our best if not our best server,’’ Airola said. ``I didn’t mind the missed serves earlier in the game because we were being aggressive with our serves.’’

Sandburg had five service errors and two other unforced errors prior to the game being tied at 14.

Fifer was doing a masterful job of keeping the Eagles close to Andrew. The junior transfer from Marist had eight assists in the game to that point. He kept the T-Bolts off–balance by mixing his sets to five hitters.

``Scott is a really good setter,’’ Andrew Muys said. ``Almost everything he feeds us is perfect. We work on hitting together a lot at practice.’’

Muys led the Eagles with 11 kills and closed out the first game on a smash down the right sideline. That kill came off a perfect feed that was recorded as the 11th assist for Fifer in the game.

The Eagles carried the momentum of the first game into the second game by taking a 7-0 lead on Fifer’s service. He had one ace and three assists in that run. Sandburg never lost the momentum and Airola elected to pull Fifer with an 18-7 lead.

``It’s a big advantage to have some many different guys to feed the ball to,’’ Fifer said. ``If someone is off, I have four other options.’’

Groeper recorded six kills. Bill Sirosky had three kills and five blocks. Tommy Carmody had five blocks as well.

James Boyce had 11 assists for the T-bolts and Jake Bednarczyk recorded five kills.

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