Boys volleyball: West Aurora wins 1st regional title since 2005
When you haven't won a regional championship in 12 years, you don't expect things to be easy.
It wasn't.
West Aurora (29-7) captured its first boys volleyball regional title since 2005, rallying from a 25-17 opening-set loss to knock off Naperville Central 25-18, 25-23 Wednesday night in Aurora.
"It never is easy," said senior setter Tommy Garcia, who contributed 28 assists and 6 blocks for the 4th-seeded Blackhawks, who will face 2-time defending state champion Glenbard West in Friday's 5:30 p.m. Oswego sectional semifinal match.
"When you get to a regional final, everyone wants to put up a good fight."
The 5th-seeded Redhawks (23-14) certainly did that, jumping out to leads of 21-13 and 23-15 before seizing the opening set behind outside hitters John Davis and Kyle Ramey.
"We served well especially in the first set," said Redhawks coach Roger Strausberger.
Led by 6-foot-8 senior outside hitter Thomas Kovanic, West Aurora came alive in the second set. The Loyola-bound Kovanic recorded 8 of his match-high 21 kills in the middle game, including the powerful set-clinching kill following a solid serve from senior teammate Manny Chaidez (5 kills, 6 blocks).
West Aurora grabbed leads of 15-10 and 19-13 in the decisive third set - and still led 23-17 following a lofted ace from Chaidez - before the Redhawks staged a furious comeback.
The 6-0 rally that tied the score at 23-all was aided by five hitting errors from the Blackhawks.
"I'm not going to lie - I had a feeling it was going to get close around 23 because emotion was going to take over," said Blackhawks coach Tolis Koskinaris. "Roger (Strausberger) has been there so many times. He was actually one of my role-model coaches growing up. I used to watch his teams when they competed on the club side."
Kovanic's 20th kill of the night off a picture-perfect back set from Garcia gave the Blackhawks a 24-23 lead, and the duo combined to finish off the Redhawks moments later when Garcia's strong serve helped set up Kovanic's tip kill on match point.
"We kept pushing through even when we gave up the six-point lead," said Kovanic.
"It has been kind of a four-year process for me specifically, and for the team it has been 12 years. We got close last year. This year, we buckled down and finished strong."
The Blackhawks also received key contributions from juniors Michael Walker (4 kills, 3 blocks) and Tyler Long (2 kills, 3 blocks).
"This is incredible," said Garcia. "This is our coach's first regional championship in his nine years. It means a ton to us."
"Beating Naperville Central and then to win a regional championship, it doesn't get any better personally - and for the school, it's great, too," said Koskinaris. "We did this for nine years of players that put a lot of work into this program and couldn't have this moment."
Davis and Ramey paced the Redhawks with 8 kills apiece while Tim Folliard added 28 assists and Brandon Kockurka had 16 digs.