Brian Szcwezyk go up for the block against Bishop Guertin's D.H. Omogrosso during Thursday's 3-0 Cavs win in Hollis. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOLLIS — Good ol’ Mr. Mo. He always shows up.

As in mo-mentum. That’s what the game of volleyball is about, at all levels.

On Thursday, the Bishop Guertin High School boys volleyball team had it – but Hollis Brookline simply snatched it away.

The Cards had leads of 10-5 in the opening set and 14-7 in the second, but the Cavaliers rallied in both to grab a 3-0 sweep by set tallies of 25-22, 25-20, and 25-9.

“It’s early in the season, we had the home jitters, I guess,” Cavaliers coach Ed Leonard said, his team now 2-0 after two wins over the Cards. “We have a lot of new players who understand the momentum of this game. It can turn, just like that.”

And it did.

HB had a leader on the floor in one of only two returnees from two years ago, Max Marshall. Marshall served 14 points in a row in the final set, with 11 aces, and he had a whopping 34 assists.

“We just had to be loud, be energetic, and be there for our teammates, talk about the mistakes, not get down, and stay up,” Marshall said. “There’s a lot of new players, and they have a lot of talent.”

Jake Laborde had 14 kills to lead the Cavs, while Brin Szewczyk added four kills and four blocks. Matt Kelley added five kills and Liam Troddyn 10 digs.

“It’s a mental toughness thing,” Guertin’s Matt Box said. “We did this on Tuesday too. We’ve been focusing on things like spot serving and that gets us ahead. Then we get into rallying and abandoning things that we’d been practicing all day. … You see me get upset on the bench it’s because all the time we’re spending in practicing, really getting better on, and then I don’t see it on the court.”

And that cost the Cards (0-2) its grasp on momentum.

“You’ve got to hold on to it,” Box said, “and run.”

The Cards were led by D.J. Omogrosso’s 14 kills to go with 11 blocks, nine digs, and three aces. Libero Joey Farris aided 15 digs with four aces and a kill, while Erik Wizboski added nine kills, 11 digs, three blocks and three aces.

Down 10-5 in the opening set, the Cavs went on a 7-0 run for a 12-10 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Down 14-7 in set two, after a time out they rallied for an 18-17 lead, led 21-18 and sealed the deal. And then they finished things off with a 16-1 jump in that final set.

“The big part of it is communication,” Leonard said. “Once they got comfortable with each other, communicating on the court, doing what we normally do and relaxing, things just kind of fell into place.”

It’s early, and teams are just getting used to being back out there after the year away. So there’s plenty of time to develop.

“Teams that we see this season succeed,” Box said, “will be teams with that mental toughness that can go through the game.”

And then grab Mr. Mo and keep him prisoner.

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