WW South going to state for 7th straight year
Calm down and clean up your act.
That was the message Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier gave his team after it let a lead slip away in a 25-23 Game 1 loss to Glenbard East in Tuesday night's Willowbrook sectional championship volleyball match. But considering all that this Tigers squad has been through over the past couple years, Schreier probably didn't even need to send out that message.
Either way, the second-seeded Tigers did stay calm and did clean up their game en route to a 23-25, 25-23, 25-18 defeat of top-seeded Glenbard East to advance to an amazing seventh straight state finals tournament. The five-time state champs will open quarterfinal play Friday against Neuqua Valley.
"We made 9 errors and lost 25-23," Schreier said of the opener. "We knew if we cleaned it up on our side and took care of business that we'd be all right. But I can't say enough about our senior leadership and their dedication to what was at stake."
What was at stake was a trip to state, and a Rams team that had beaten Wheaton Warrenville South (35-4) twice this season had plenty of momentum after erasing deficits of 16-9 and 20-16 before claiming the opener. Glenbard East stars Mark Jones and Tim Lovik powered Glenbard East to the win as Jones kept setting up Lovik and the senior outside hitter finished things off from there. Lovik had 9 kills in Game 1, and Jones assisted on most those, including his winners for the 24th and 25th points of Game 1.
The Rams even took a 4-1 lead to start the middle game and led 10-7 after a winner by Shawn Havenga, but the Tigers broke a 17-all tie on a thunderous spike by Neill Nystrom and went on to take the game 25-23 to even the match.
"To get up and lose the lead the way we did, it's devastating actually to be honest," said the 6-foot-10 Nystrom, who finished the match with 17 kills and 1 block. "But it came down to the fact that we had six seniors on the court and we didn't want it to come to an end."
Game 3 didn't live up to the first two games Tuesday as the Tigers defense and blocking managed to slow Lovik a tad and the battled-tested Wheaton Warrenville South squad started to taste yet another trip to state. Setter Joe Kelly, a two-time state champion, ran a smooth attack all night and finished with 44 assists and 6 digs.
Brothers Eric and Matt Wilkins sparked the defense with 8 digs apiece.
"We talked about it after the first game, that that (loss) was all on us," Kelly said. "All year I've said we've been a battling team."
Jones could only tip his hat to the Tigers on this night.
"We pulled out the first one, but we just didn't pull it through after that," Jones said. "We both put it all out on the floor. They just came out on top. It was a great match."
Rams coach Marci Maier echoed her setter's thoughts, saying: "We fought hard and we just came up a little short. They executed a little bit better than we did in Game 3, but we left it out on the floor and we did our best."