Game of the Week: Oak Forest Boys Volleyball Takes Care of Conference Rival Reavis

With two of the more successful boys volleyball programs from the South Suburban Conference going at it Tuesday night, fans were in for an early-season treat.

Reavis, however, showed its rust in its season opener, and Oak Forest showed why it’s vying for a second straight conference championship, as the Bengals defeated the Rams in 25-15, 25-22 at Reavis High School in Burbank.

“It’s a great way to start the season,” said Oak Forest senior outside hitter Dylan Maziur, whose team is 2-0 after winning Monday night against Homewood-Flossmoor as well.

Tuesday night’s match featured two of the more successful coaches from the South Suburban Conference. Oak Forest’s Amanda Brown and Reavis’ Bob Wielgos are each in their ninth full seasons as head coach and have combined to win over 280 games. Brown is coming off a season last year in which the program won its first-ever conference title, while Wielgos has two conference championships under his belt and six regional championships.

Both teams came out swinging in the first game, as these conference rivals were hyped to play each other after sharing the conference title last season. Maziur gave the Bengals some separation at 11-9 with a kill. Oak Forest took control of the first game from that point on, taking an 18-11 lead before closing out the game 25-15. Maziur and senior setter Cody Owens, who finished with 13 assists, were in sync all evening.

“Me and Cody clicked,” said Maziur, who had a match-high 13 kills. “He just kept getting it out there, and I was just doing whatever I could to put it away.”

The Bengals carried their momentum over to the second game and jumped out to a 10-4 lead. The rest of the game featured runs on both sides as Reavis climbed within three points at 13-10 before Oak Forest led 23-13.

The Rams weren’t done, however, and climbed to within two points at 24-22. Maziur, however, gave the Bengals a victory with a match-clinching winner that Reavis couldn’t control.

“Everyone went in cruise-control mode and broke down mentally a little bit,” Maziur said of allowing the Reavis run at the end of the game. “But we were able to pull it out.”

Wielgos knows Oak Forest is a good team but still wasn’t happy with the result.

“This was a good wake-up call,” said Wielgos, whose team dropped to 0-1. “I like the fact that we put a run together … but other than that, not too much went right.”

The victory was sweet for the Bengals, as Reavis had beaten Oak Forest late last season to spoil Oak Forest’s bid for sole possession of a conference championship.

“(My team) has been looking forward to this game; they’ve been counting down the days,” Brown said. “I know for our seniors, it’s pretty satisfying.”

Reavis seniors Chris Rusznica and Ruben Puha each had five kills.

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