Rams stay composed, knock out Blazers

An early deficit is no big deal to Glenbard East.

So when Addison Trail broke out to a quick 8-1 lead in Friday night's Willowbrook boys volleyball sectional semifinal, the Rams didn't panic.

They came back. Quickly. And the Rams won the match 25-18, 25-23 to advance to Tuesday's sectional final against Lyons Twp.

"It's always nice to come out on top, but they gave us all we could handle, didn't they?" asked Rams coach Marci Maier. "It was good to see that despite their fast start we kept our composure, and once we got rolling we did very well."

"It was surprising to all of us," Addison Trail coach Tom Hubner said. "We were all looking at each other. I think if we could've kept it going a little longer … they caught us too quick."

The Rams (35-3) tied the game at 9, took the lead for good at 15-14 and cruised past the stunned Blazers to the Game 1 win.

"It was just that we started playing like we can and eliminated some of our errors and got on track," Maier said. "We've had composure the entire season, which, definitely in a situation like this, is a good thing to have. It's nice to be able to weather the storm and come back."

The Rams led most of the way in Game 2, though never by more than 4, before clinching the match on a Blazers serve into the net.

The Blazers finished the season 27-10.

"On paper they've got 10 club guys and they're huge and we're three club guys and very, very tiny," Hubner said. "I think we played as hard as we could. I thought (libero Matt) Santowski played probably the best game I've seen him play in a long, long time. He was touching everything up there. He was touching balls he had no business to touch.

"It was just our blocking at the net. I don't think we blocked well enough. We came out real strong, and I think we got comfortable and we can't do that against a team that's that talented."