Neuqua Valley can't put away Minooka

The host Neuqua Valley volleyball team easily won the first game of its sectional semi-final over Minooka 25-13 on Friday.

And the Wildcats were almost home free with a 16-11 lead in Game 2 against a team they had beaten three times already this year.

But someone forgot to tell the Minooka Indians that they were on their way to a loss and elimination from the postseason.

The Indians (20-11-2) fought back valiantly, overtook the Wildcats (28-10) at 23-22 and closed the deal to even the games at one apiece.

The third game was all Minooka, who won 25-15 and advanced to Tuesday's sectional final for the first time in its history.

The Wildcats failed to qualify for the state tournament's Elite Eight for the first time in three years, with the kind of loss that was all-too familiar to the Wildcats, a team comprised mainly of juniors.

"Talent only gets you so far," said Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza. "You have to play as a team, and we weren't playing together. In all of our losses this year we lost because we weren't able to finish. Minooka just played better than us."

That wasn't true early in the match when everything was clicking for the Wildcats.

"In Game 1 we passed and blocked really well," Mendoza said. "We served them tough and it was difficult from them to run their offense."

"That first game was the best game we've played all year and our emotional peak," said Johnathan Rychly, one of two seniors in the Wildcats lineup. "But in the middle of Game 2, after we shanked a couple of serves, we fell off that peak and couldn't recover."

Mendoza was impressed with Minooka's on-court demeanor.

"Even when we were killing Minooka in the first game, you couldn't tell. They weren't pouting. They kept steady," Mendoza said. "When things started to go bad for our players you could see it on their faces.

Phillips led the Indians with 12 kills, while Matt Lindstrom was the dig leader with 18.

Ryne Jacobson put away two service aces during a 6-point run that gave the Indians the 15-8 separation they needed to open up the game.

"Early in the second game, I was getting nervous that we were going to lose to Neuqua for the fourth time," said Minooka coach Janel Grzetich. "We had to fix our mistakes like our passing and our blocking. And we did that during the second game. And Matt Phillips made adjustments and started hitting the ball the way he normally does. He sees the court so well."

"We cleaned up a lot of our small mistakes and we put the ball away," said Minooka's John Hynek. "They thought they had us, but we knew all along we were going to win. They got overconfident."

Jon Storm was Neuqua Valley's kill leader with 14 and Conner Dart came up big with 9 digs, 6 kills and 3 blocks. Alex Blackwell had 25 assists and Zach Gilligan led in digs with 13.