On a weekend when Marist’s sophomores showcased a wildly bright future, one of the brightest was outside hitter Nathen Toth.
The Mokena resident enjoyed club success in 2022, being named an All-American at the USA Volleyball National Championships in early June before following that up by making the Junior Volleyball Association’s all-tournament team later in the month.
But he’s not making any bold proclamations about his first year on the varsity.
“I want to be here to do my job,” he said. “I’m not here to be the star player — we already have those. I just want to play clean and not make mistakes.”
The 6-foot-2 Toth did but also showed some star power Saturday, leading the RedHawks with 12 kills and five aces in a 25-8, 24-26, 28-26 victory over Lincoln-Way East to win the 24-team Marist Invitational for the fourth straight time.
The 2025 class for Marist (6-0), indeed, is going to be special. Toth and setter Christian Teresi, the East Suburban Catholic Conference’s player of the year last season, are sophomores on the varsity.
Marist’s JV team, made up of all sophomores, stunned observers Saturday with a sixth-place finish in tournament. That included a three-game win over Downers Grove South, which finished third in the state last spring and was ranked No. 18 in the state by illprepvb.com.
“They were the talk of the tournament,” Marist coach Jordan Vidovic said of the sophomores.
Toth and Teresi — plus sophomore team members Jacob Finley, Devlin Biggs, Griffin McElroy and Rorey Donnelly — are on the Adversity 16 Adidas South club team.
“We’re just all here because we love volleyball,” Toth said of the sophomores. “We love to play the game. We all hang out with each other on the weekends.”
Adversity coach Keith Kujawa predicts good things for the Marist players on his team.
“They will be wearing medals around their necks in the summer,” Kujawa said, referring to a high finish in national competition.
Marist’s JV team had never finished better than the middle of the pack in the Silver Bracket, according to Vidovic.
“We wanted to push hard and have fun,” Finley said. “But we literally said we wanted to win this tournament.”
The sophomores lost 25-14, 25-17 to Marist’s varsity in the Gold quarterfinals, but with wins over Providence, Plainfield Central, Downers Grove South and a three-game loss to Evanston, they put on quite a show.
“It’s extremely exciting to see them win,” Marist sophomore coach Molly Butler said. “I knew we were going to have a good group talent-wise but they also bring a lot of positive energy.”
Senior libero Brendan Schoeberl was voted tourney MVP by the coaches, while Toth and Luke Brannigan from the varsity were named all-tournament. Donnelly from the JV team also was all-tournament.
Winning formula: Brother Rice won the 12-team Barrington/Vernon Hills Tournament while Lincoln-Way West won the 16-team Joliet West Tiger Challenge.
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Brother Rice beat Glenbrook North 31-29, 25-23 to win the tournament as senior middle hitter Michael Bos had 19 kills and tournament MVP Brendan McCarthy, also a senior middle, had nine kills.
Lincoln-Way West beat Stevenson 25-16, 28-26 to win the title at Joliet West as Connor Studer had 18 kills while Garrett Konopack had 26 assists.
Road sweet road: Homewood-Flossmoor benefited from opening the season on the road.
The Vikings traveled to Indiana to take on Illiana Christian and lost the first game 25-20, won the second 25-17 and dropped the third 25-23.
If that match was held in Illinois, the Vikings would have started the season 0-1. But in Indiana, they play five games, so the match continued and H-F won the final two games 25-11, 25-8.
Ahmad Powell led the Vikings with 14 kills and Nate Epley had 12.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
