Glenbard West wins with help from friends

How far does the influence of Facebook extend?

Even, dear friends, to the IHSA boys volleyball playoffs.

After the Glenbard West players were given the assignment in the beginning of the season by coach Christine Giunta-Mayer to help increase their fan base, Kevin McGinnis took it upon himself to design a Facebook page devoted to that very thing.

Friday night at the Schaumburg sectional semifinals, that effort paid off in a big way.

Spurred on by a loud, boisterous crowd, the “seventh man” as it were, the third-seeded Hilltoppers played their way into their first sectional final with a tense 25-20, 22-25, 25-13 victory over Addison Trail.

“We’ve had a lot of support this season,” Giunta-Mayer said. “I made the kids responsible for that and gave it to them as a goal, and they did a great job. They were 9-0 at home this season and our fan support was a big part of that.”

It also didn’t hurt the Hilltoppers (31-7) to have Ian Lawson on their side. Lawson hammered 15 kills, 7 of them in the deciding game.

Senior outside hitter Dan Flores led a strong Blazers performance with 10 kills.

“I’m proud of our guys, they played hard,,” said Addison Trail coach Tom Hubner. “I think we were a little beat after the second game, and it didn’t help that we couldn’t stop their two big guns (Lawson and Adam Lepold, who swatted 13 kills.)

The Blazers looked to have taken back the momentum after taking advantage of a controversial call on a ball hit wide that gave Addison Trail the second game win.

But the ensuing delay due to an official’s conference took some of the fire out of the Blazers.

“Our kids had to stand around awhile and I think they lost their momentum,” Hubner said. “They came out a little flat in Game 3.”

After a Flores kill tied Game 3 at 9-9, Lawson, Lepold and Scottie Thomas took control and led their team on a 9-1 run to put the match away.

Hilltoppers libero McGinnis had 14 digs while Alex Emanuel and Chris Glotzbach excelled at the setter position.

“We ran some switches in the third game,” Giunta-Mayer said. “We didn’t run things straight up and we were able to get them on the block.”

Giunta-Mayer also added that her team kept its cool during the delay at the end of Game 2 and that was a key.

“I told our kids you can’t dwell on the last point, you have to move on to the next point. And (Addison Trail) came out and missed their first serve in the third game.”