Boys volleyball: Flatley, Howe revel in a winning senior moment at Antioch
They were two of the last people out of the gym.
And rightly so.
Ian Flatley and Tommy Howe were soaking up the moment. It was their night, senior night for the Antioch boys volleyball team.
The two seniors made one memory after another Thursday night as they stood in front of the hand-made posters that were taped to the gym wall in their honor. They each got a poster board filled with a collage of pictures … of them as babies.
They also got presents from their coach, a hand-decorated table for a laptop, an inspirational leather bracelet that reminds them to "stay humble and kind," and a copy of the team's favorite series on Netflix, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
They also got a victory, a victory so special that it too won't fade from the memory bank any time soon.
Antioch played inspired volleyball after a rough first set to come back and defeat visiting Mundelein in dramatic fashion, 20-25, 25-18, 25-6.
The Sequoits were so pumped up from their do-or-die, second-set victory that they reeled off a 20-2 advantage at the start of the third set and had the home crowd rocking.
"It was such a high-energy game and there was lots of cool stuff going on, lots of festivities. I think it really helped us with the energy going into the third set," Howe said.
"We just enjoyed playing together tonight," Flatley said. "It was senior night, we thought we should go out with a bang and we were all laughing and smiling even after the first set, and then we just kicked it into gear and everything started working.
"It was just fun. It was the most fun we've had playing volleyball all season."
Antioch, which improves to 8-10, was in firm control most of the way in the second set and then just exploded in the finale.
Kristian Jimenez served 12 straight points to give the Sequoits a 13-1 lead in the third set. Then Nathan Cielek rolled up 6 more points to put Antioch up 20-2. Cielek and Flatley put away one point after another with thunderous kills that kept the crowd on a high.
Flatley finished with 16 total kills for the game, while Cielek had 7 kills.
"We are a streaky team like that sometimes," Antioch coach Jamie Atkinson said. "We were kind of stuck in a serve receive rut in the first set. And to see them come out of it … I knew they could dominate, and they did. That was the team I've known they could be. It was beautiful to see. I had tears in my eyes. It was awesome."
Flately added 20 digs for Antioch while Bryan Ortiz finished with 23 digs. Setter Jordan Hart had 17 assists and Cielek added 12 assists to go along with 4 aces.
For Mundelein (5-21), both Abram Nazario and Linden Ewing each had 5 kills. In the blitzkrieg of a third set, the Mustangs didn't register a single kill as a team.
"The first set we played extremely well and this is the second time we played them and both times it's gone three (sets)," Mundelein coach George Dressen said. "But then, (Antioch) just got on fire. Everything they were touching was golden for them.
"It was their senior night, they had a lot of things going on and they built off that. It was evident they were doing everything right and we had some struggles and we just couldn't recover."