Blazers overcome jitters, Morton
Addison Trail players said before its regional title match against West Suburban Gold champion Morton that there wasn't a nervous soul on the team.
The way the Blazers played the first game would make one wonder if that was true as the Mustangs won 25-17 Wednesday night.
"Everyone said that they were jitter-free before the match," Addison Trail senior outside hitter Brad Connors said. "The jitters were there. Morton came out extremely strong and they caught us off guard in the first game."
Good thing for the Blazers the match isn't over until a team wins two games. Addison Trail (27-9) rebounded after the first game to win the next two games with scores of 25-15, 25-19 to advance in the state playoffs.
After a rough first game the Blazers were able to get their offense rolling in the second game as they scored 18 of the second games last 25 points to cruise to an easy win.
Connors started putting the ball down the lines and using some finesse kills as he had 7 of his match-high 15 kills during that second game.
Both teams traded points back and forth up to 10-all when the Blazers went on a little run in the decisive game. Addison Trail went on a 12-4 spurt after the tie and eventually grabbed a 24-16 lead, needing only one more point to advance.
But the Mustangs (23-10) did not make it easy for them.
First there was a block kill by Sam Gomez, then a kill by Victor Pina, then a hitting error by the Blazers. With the score 24-19, Addison Trail finally got the break it needed as the Mustangs' last attack for the season went wide left and the Blazers and their fans stormed the court in celebration.
"Any time a team is looking at having its season end, they usually don't go away easy," Addison Trail coach Tom Hubner said. "Morton is a great team and they had a great season that they didn't want to end. They came after us and made us sweat a little."
"Things got a little interesting in the end but we didn't panic because we knew we only needed one sideout to win the match," Connors said. "As you saw, we got it."
Chris Vazquez had a match-high 37 assists in the win. Axel Salvo chipped in with 14 digs while Tom Jelonek had 5 blocks.