Neuqua earns return to state

Neuqua Valley is going to the state boys volleyball tournament for the third year in a row.

The Wildcats (35-4) dominated a much shorter and less experienced O'Fallon 25-10, 25-11 to win the Bolingbrook sectional championship for the third straight year.

Neuqua will face two-time defending champion Wheaton Warrenville South in the state quarterfinals Friday.

"Tonight we had good blocks, great passing and everyone got good hits to put the ball down," said Neuqua Valley middle hitter Andrew Stirk.

Rob Bauer, who led the Wildcats with 11 kills, started the game off in dramatic fashion with a pair of his signature power spikes for the first two points.

"Bauer put those two straight down and got everyone fired up," Stirk said. "We were just pumped up for the sectional championship. We have to be ready for next weekend and we have to stay motivated to keep our momentum up. If we let down today, we would still be down on Friday. We have to go into every practice and every match with high energy."

The Wildcats dominated both games by repeatedly smashing the ball straight down on the other side of the net.

"O'Fallon's block wasn't that strong," Neuqua's Grant Hedrick said. "They were over-passing and we were setting it up and hitting the ball straight down."

The Neuqua passing was nearly perfect as it has been throughout the playoffs.

"We passed really well and that allowed us to run our offense," said Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza. "We ran tandems off the serve-receive, and off the free balls. It was just an excellent game all the way around."

"Our passing is so much better than it was at the beginning of the season," Hedrick said. "Our team has played close to its best volleyball throughout the regional and sectional."

Tim Brackett finished the match with 8 kills, Kevin Begley led the diggers with 13 and Alex Onsager set for 27 assists.

"Sometimes when you play a match like that you let your guard down and get lazy," Mendoza said. "Mentally, we were really focused tonight. It didn't matter who was on the other side of the net. We were going to go out there and play our game."

O'Fallon coach Tim Gagen was impressed by the Wildcats performance.

"We ran into one of the top teams in the state," Gagen said. "We can't replicate that with downstate volleyball. We just ran into a buzzsaw. Once the snowball started rolling downhill, it just kept going. They're a very, very, very good team and I wish them the best of luck and hope they win it all."

Michael Sasiela was the kill leader with 3 for the Panthers (23-6), who traveled 41/2 hours from downstate for the match.