Kawa, Elk Grove handle York

Michal Kawa describes his jump serve as something that’s been “progressive” throughout the season.

The Elk Grove senior saw plenty of progress in that phase of the game on Wednesday night.

Kawa helped the Grenadiers jump out to a sizable first-set lead, and backed by an energetic home crowd, top-seeded Elk Grove rolled to a 25-14, 25-14 victory over eight seed York in the Elk Grove regional final to earn a spot in Elgin sectional semifinal on Friday.

The victory gave Elk Grove its fifth regional title and also secured the program’s first 30-win season.

“It’s great that we won regionals, but it’s cool that they didn’t get over-excited,” said Elk Grove coach Dan Windholz. “This is was a step for us. We know it gets tougher each round.”

York jumped out to a 3-2 lead in the first set before Kawa put down one of his game-high 11 kills. Then Kawa had to step back to an area where he struggled in the regional semifinal the day before: the service line.

“He missed quite a few yesterday,” Windholz said of Kawa. “They were all a little nervous yesterday, and we didn’t serve well.”

On this day, Kawa’s powerful jump serve gave York all kinds of trouble as the Grenadiers rattled off nine straight points, four of which were Kawa’s aces, to take a commanding 12-3 lead.

“At the beginning of the season, it wasn’t as effective but it’s been getting better,” Kawa said. “We’ve been working on it. If it gets going, it’s going.”

The Dukes wouldn’t get closer than 6 points the rest of the way as Elk Grove’s Jeff Miceli (22 assists) repeatedly set up Kawa and fellow senior Aaron Kraus.

“We had to channel it all and play together as a team,” Miceli said. “When we are hitting on all cylinders, there’s not a lot that other teams can do.”

York’s Jack Ribar tallied one of his 5 kills to tie the second set at 5-5 and the Dukes actually led 8-7, but it slowly unraveled from there.

“You know what you’re going to get from (Elk Grove),” said York coach Ken Dowdy. “(Kraus and Kawa) are going to swing away and we had zero blocks. If you can’t block against this team, you’re going to lose.”

The last of Kraus’ 10 kills gave Elk Grove a 20-11 advantage in the second set before Kawa closed it out with 2 kills.

And for a team that only has one player, Miceli, in the same position as last season, back-to-back regional titles have come with a lot of sacrifice.

“I am proud that they have adjusted and moved to positions that wouldn’t have been their first choice to play,” Windholz said. “They’ve come together as a team.”

For Elk Grove, the story doesn’t end here.

“It was a great win, and for the last win on this court, it’s amazing,” Kawa said. “We want to end our season on a win.”