Boryca, Naperville North down rival Naperville Central

It seems like magic, but it isn't.

We're talking about Naperville North libero Danny Boryca's ability to keep his teammates simultaneously pumped up and calmed down.

On Tuesday Boryca worked his non-magic to help the Huskies bounce back from a 25-23 Game 1 loss to close with 25-18 and 25-10 wins in Games 2 and 3 for a season split with the Redhawks, who had beaten them on Naperville Central's court earlier in the season.

"I try to calm them down by making sure they forget the last play if the opponent scored," Boryca said. "And I try to pump them up by keeping them enthusiastic and always keeping their heads up."

"Danny is a vocal leader on the court," said Naperville North coach Nate Bornancin. "I've noticed even in practice, you love him when he's on your team and you hate him on the other side, because he's constantly digging and he's constantly talking. Our team has such great chemistry when he's on the court."

The Redhawks had a road victory and a sweep of the season series against their crosstown rivals in sight when they won Game 1 25-23.

But as they have at other times this year against other good teams, namely St. Francis and Wheaton Warrenville South, the Redhawks (15-17, 5-6) let their opponents back in and ultimately lost the match.

"We played some really good volleyball in Game 1," said Naperville Central coach Bryan Johnwick. "We were just average in Game 2 and then came out really flat in Game 3. Naperville North played very good volleyball. They're scrapping a lot. They get a lot of digs. "Their libero (Boryca) was all over the place."

The Redhawks stayed close through a good part of Game 2, but then a 6-point run by the Huskies (25-8, 10-2) with Ryan Loughlin doing the serving opened up an 18-12 lead and put Naperville North in position to force a third game.

And Naperville North put its stamp on that third game immediately by building an 8-0 lead and never letting the Redhawks into it.

"Everyone scrapped today," Bornancin said. "No one had a bad match. Our strategy was to stay on Central's middles and in the first game they killed us anyway. In Games 2 and 3 we had our outsides pinch in and put up a double block against them. And then we just started to anticipate and react better. Shane's kills always give us momentum."

Boryca finished with 19 digs and Steve Massoni had 32 assists for the Huskies.

"Steve put the ball wherever it needed to go," Boryca said.

Sam Wilson was next on the Huskies kill list with 7 and Henry Cheatham had 5. Loughlin challenged the Redhawks middles with 7 blocks.

"We're ready for the playoffs," Boryca said. "Beating Wheaton Warrenville South last week was huge. We're still riding it and we'll try to keep it up through the playoffs and never get down."

For Naperville Central, Alex Povejsil led the offense with 11 kills, while middles Ryan Thill and Matt Neufeld had 6 apiece.