Wehrli, Benet stop Glenbard W.
Bobby Wehrli is one of Benet’s big hitters, but he started Wednesday’s Glenbard West regional final a little slowly.
However, the energy and intensity displayed by his teammates inspired him and got him going.
Wehrli, with 8 kills, 2 blocks and 6 digs, was just one of the heroes in the sixth-seeded Redwings’ 22-25, 25-21, 25-22 win over third-seeded Glenbard West to win the Glenbard West regional championship.
“To see my teammates do that, I had to step up,” Wehrli said.
The Redwings (28-8) will play Glenbard East in the Wheaton Warrenville South sectional semifinals Friday.
Benet’s balanced attack was led by reserve hitter Nathan Parisi, who had his best match with a team-leading 13 kills.
“This was a big match,” Parisi said. “Once we got to the regional we wanted to win it. We want to go far in this tournament.’
“We knew going into this year that we had the potential to do great things,” Wehrli said. “To get here and win this is something we’ve been pointing to for years.”
Senior Luke Ladowski, who had 6 kills, 3 blocks and 3 aces, has been a Benet starter since his freshman year.
“This is unbelievable,” Ladowski said. “We won nothing my freshman year and now there are 10 of us seniors and we played hard all year and did this. We knew it would be a tough match, but we didn’t want anything to touch our side of the floor. One of the big things in this match was our blocking. We got a whole lot of touches and straight up blocks. Parisi was the sparkplug.”
Matt Conroy had 7 kills and 3 blocks for the Redwings, and Garrett Metzger added 5 kills and 3 blocks. Kevin Weithers led with 15 digs and Pat Dougherty dealt out 37 assists.
The Hilltoppers (30-7) led through most of Game 1, although the Redwings stayed within a few points throughout.
Games 2 and 3 belonged to Benet, but the Redwings were also unable to shake the Hilltoppers until the very end of both games.
“We came out flat in Game 2,” said Glenbard West coach Christine Mayer. “You have to give credit to Benet. We did nothing with their middles. They were hitting over our blocks and hitting it fast. They played an outstanding match. It was not typical of our team to have no rhythm. Every time we got it started it stopped again. At the end you could see the frustration on our kids’ faces.”
Ian Lawson led the Hilltoppers with 17 kills, and Scotty Thomas added 6 kills and 6 blocks.
After the match Benet coach Amy Van Eekeren described her feelings as “excited and a little emotional.”
“We know Glenbard West is an outstanding team and we were playing in their gym,” Van Eekeren said. “They’re a very aggressive team. But we were focused and we knew we had to come with our best game and we did. At this time of the year, you have to fight for every single point. Our blocking was outstanding. I’m proud of our boys. It’s great that it’s all coming together for our team at this point of the season.”