Bryton Oliver on fire in volleyball sweep at LaPorte as Trojans turn attention to monster rematch vs. Lake Central at home Monday night

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Vintagevolleyball.com answers common questions about the sport, such as: What is a good hitting percentage in volleyball?
First, the kill percentage formula: Kills minus errors, divided by total attempts equals hitting percentage.
Now, for the vintagevolleyball.com answer to the original question: “A good hitting percentage is typically considered to be around .300 or higher.”
Would you believe that after his monster night Thursday in a 3-0 win at LaPorte, Chesterton senior Bryton Oliver has a hitting percentage approaching .700.
A 6-foot-7 middle blocker, Oliver made good each of his first eight, the beginning to his crazy hot night. Chesterton won the first two sets by identical 21-14 scores and in the third set coach Kevin Labaj was generous with playing time for players who don’t typically get as much playing time and the Trojans’ focus might have been drifting to Monday night. LaPorte took advantage and built leads of 19-16 and 21-19, but Chesterton prevailed, 25-21.
Oliver said he never had started a game 8 for 8. Not many do.
“Definitely not,” Oliver said. “I could kind of tell before the game. I felt good. The past two weeks, I can tell I’ve really got my timing back.”
Oliver missed most of his junior season, when boys volleyball was in its final year as an emerging sport before gaining full-fledged IHSAA status this season. He had a broken leg and it took a while for everything to feel back to normal. He’s definitely there now.
Oliver is literally and figuratively one of the biggest reasons Chesterton takes a 14-1 record into the biggest boys volleyball game in the history of the high school: Lake Central and Chesterton, the only schools with a shot at winning the DAC, face each other Monday at about 6 p.m. in the Chesterton gym. LC won the first conference match against the Trojans in St. John, 3-1.
It's such a big match that Chesterton players, managers and coaches have been asking their friends to pack the place to give the Trojans any edge they can get.
“From my understanding, from what the boys are telling me, it’s going to be a huge turnout for the guys,” Labaj said. “I even said I’ll provide them with free pizza if you can get the football team or whatever team to come, I’ll provide the pizza. We’d like to get all the teams here. Soccer boys. Soccer girls. Volleyball girls. Get them all.”
Will students and sports fans in town alike answer that call to action and attend a huge high school sporting event on a night of the week that typically doesn’t have many? The answer won’t be known until Monday night. The lucky ones will be there to see the answer for themselves. Hearing about it instead of seeing it always loses something in the translation.
Chesterton didn’t have its best night in LC and the home team capitalized with long runs in the final two sets to claim sole possession of first place.
“We have to be way more consistent all the way around. We made way too many mistakes,” Oliver said of what needs to be better this time for a different outcome. “I think we kind of showed part of our weakness again today. We make a mistake or two and we let other teams get energy and keep going with it. We do that with Lake Central, let them get up a couple of points, it’s hard to come back. So, we just have to make sure even when we’re letting up a point or two we are immediately getting them back. We can’t let them get on big runs.”
A big crowd could work against the visiting team’s chances of using their powerful hitters to go on big runs.
See you there?