Boys volleyball: Montini keeps calm, rallies to defeat Waubonsie Valley

Andrew Vogrin and the Montini boys volleyball team never worried.

Not when they trailed by 7 points in the first game against Waubonsie Valley.

Not when they faced a set point and trailed by 3. Not when they faced two more set points after tying it.

Any panic at all?

"Not really," the senior setter said.

Each time Vogrin and the Broncos just picked themselves up, rallied and took care of business. Montini beat Waubonsie Valley 25-21, 28-26.

"Just got to keep our heads high," Vogrin said. "Be confident and hope for the best and trust in everyone."

Waubonsie Valley (0-1) looked in control in the first game. After an ace by Montini's Charles Woods, the Warriors scored 7 of the next 9 points and took a 14-7 lead in the first set.

"Our serving was decent," Chris Breuer said.

But Montini rallied. The Broncos (1-1) scored the next three points and then cut the deficit to 17-15 on an ace from Abraham Neil Husmillo. That forced a timeout from the Warriors.

"When they called that timeout, we got hyped," Vogrin said.

It showed.

Montini scored the next 2 points, tying the game at 17 on a Michael Gergen block.

The teams traded points, with Vogrin tying the game at 20 on a kill. Montini took that momentum and ran, scoring 5 of the last six points in the game.

We kind of struggled at the beginning," Vogrin said. "But then we kept going and kept going and we tried to find everyone on the court as much as possible and keep playing smart."

They needed another comeback in the second game.

Vogrin gave Montini a 20-19 lead with a kill. But Montini had three consecutive attacking errors, sparking a 5-1 salvo by Waubonsie Valley that gave it a 24-21 lead.

Montini didn't stress.

"Since we had a comeback in the first game, we had to keep our heads high and keep playing tough and keep competing with them," Vogrin said.

They did that. On game point the Warriors had a service error, then Mark Zheng had a kill and a block to tie the game at 24.

"They were a good blocking team," Breuer said. "We couldn't get the ball over the net."

Waubonsie Valley took the lead on a Joe Dieter block, before Zheng had another kill to tie the game at 25. Jack Rafferty gave the Warriors their third game point with a kill.

Montini rattled off three straight points - a service error, a Connor Lindemann kill and a Christian Navas kill.

"They were looking not to lose the match instead of putting it away," Waubonsie Valley coach Noel Soto said. "We got a little bit tight."

And it gave Montini an early season, confidence-boosting win.

"Waubonsie played very well," Montini coach Brian Opoka said. "That's a program that's well above where we normally compete with. For us to just be here would be great, but when there was that timeout in the first game, we came together, there was just that sense of belief across all of my kids that they believed in (winning)."