Boys volleyball: Downers Grove South rallies to reach state semifinals

Downers Grove South's Matt Molnar showed little emotion when leaving the bench after the final timeout of Friday's match.

The 6-foot-7 senior outside hitter had been a ball of energy throughout the state quarterfinal against New Trier. Molnar had an impactful performance, sparking rallies with his powerful kills and even providing a few eye-catching digs. Molnar's celebrations were nearly as colorful, from raising his fists to pump up the crowd or yelling out loud to his teammates.

But Molnar was strangely quiet late in the third set. With his team needing one more point to secure the program's second ever trip to the state semifinals, Molnar walked out of the last timeout with a steely determination. He adjusted his left knee brace, clapped his hands and stared at the net.

"I was thinking, 'I have to put the ball down,'' Molnar said. "I knew it was coming to me. I had to get the job done. I was taking it very seriously.'"

A few seconds later, Molnar smacked down the winning kill - off a set from Colin Mason - to propel the Mustangs to a thrilling 20-25, 25-22, 25-21 comeback victory over New Trier at Hoffman Estates High School.

The Mustangs (34-5) are two wins away from winning their second state title since 2013, when they play Lincoln-Way East at 11 a.m. Saturday in the second semifinal. The Mustangs, who have won eight straight matches, lost in two sets in Lincoln-Way East on March 26.

"I think we started off pretty slow at first, and just had to make sure we kept our confidence up," Molnar said. "We came in here sort of little nervous, the first time in a while being at state. We had a lot of shortcomings, so coming in winning today was big for us. This was awesome. I'm really excited. We have to keep our confidence up."

Molnar paced the hitting attack with 13 kills to raise his season total to 237 kills. Mason added 16 assists to push his season mark to 463 assists and Alex Barbeau chipped in with 18 digs to increase his season tally to 343.

Mason said he was excited to end the game with a kill by Molnar.

"He's my go-to guy, and I trust him to put the ball down, and that's what he did in that situation," Mason said. "That was a great team. We're a resilient team, and we showed that today. They got us a few times with runs, but we built a team and kept it when it mattered."

Senior Brannen Almarales played strong in the net, helping spark a few rallies to finish with nine kills and three digs.

"There were a lot of ups and downs," Almarales said. "The key was serving tough, getting them out of system. We knew we had to take them out of their game, to make it tough for them. We've dealt with a lot of close situations. We all want to win a state title."

Downers Grove South coach Kurt Steuer said his team weathered numerous New Trier runs to pull out the victory. The back-and-forth game led to big momentum swings to go with crucial service errors by both teams.

"This team has shown a lot of resilience all year long," Steuer said. "We've built leads on teams, and seen it diminish. Volleyball is a game of runs. We kept our composure. That's the growth from the beginning of the year to now. They found a way to put the ball down and put it in our hands. Matt played really well. In the second set, he had some big blocks on that opposite end. When he gets focused in, he wants the ball. Big-time players step up in big-time moments."