On April 22, 2026 the Libertyville Wildcats faced off against their conference rivals, the Mundelein Mustangs. Going into this game, not only were the Wildcats an undefeated 9-0, but they were sitting at first place in the North Suburban Conference.
Not too far behind them in the standings was the Mundelein Mustangs in third place. With a record of 8-3, the Mustangs were certainly hoping to be a speed bump in the road to state for the Cats.
Mundelein scored first in the game but Libertyville tied it up shortly after that. The match remained close early on in the first set. It seemed like every time one team would take the lead, the very next play, the other team would tie it up.
Libertyville had many players make impactful plays. Both senior middle hitter Nathan Knight (0) and senior defensive specialist Lukas Slesers (6) had impressive kills in the first set. On the defensive end, junior middle hitter Jackson Mckay (14) and outside hitter senior Connor Desiron (8) had stifling blocks at the net, forcing Mundelein to give up points or make a bad pass.
The Cats began to pull away in the first set, going on a 13-2 run at one point. Lukas Slesers (6) had multiple kills late in the first set to secure a Wildcat win. Libertyville seemed to have all the momentum going into the second set after winning the first 25-14.
Opening up the second set was close as well with it being tied at 2-2 after four serves. Senior libero Jackson Kern (11) made multiple clutch plays to save the ball from going out of bounds and ensuring a Wildcat point that rally.
Libertyville started the set worse than the first one and went down 2-7 after previously having it tied. The Wildcats began to rally and claw their way back into the game.
“We minimized our errors. And then we started scoring. Our front row did a really nice job playing”. Kern (11) said.
Point by point the momentum shifted more and more back into the Wildcats favor and managed to tie it up once again. However, after tying it at 10-10 the Mustangs scored three straight points to make it 10-13 Mundelein.
The Wildcats managed to close the gap another time on their conference opponents. After that it was a cat and mouse game where one team got a lead over the other and went back and forth for what seemed like every rally. Knight (0) scored a kill to seal the second set and match victory for the Wildcats despite being down multiple points for most of it and preventing the game from going to a third set.
“We pulled through, got the job done. So I’m feeling great about that”. Knight (0) said.
With the victory, the Wildcats remain undefeated at 10-0 still sit atop the NSC. Libertyville will be back at it at home on April 24, playing Buffalo Grove. For Mundelein, they move to 8-4 and slide down to fifth place in the NSC standings. They play next at home versus Larkin.
