Spartans defeat rival Titans to win first sectional since 2012

The Glenbrook North boys volleyball team won a marathon opening set that propelled the Spartans to the match victory over Glenbrook South, and sent them into the state quarterfinals.

Glenbrook North beat the Titans 29-27, 25-11 on Tuesday at the Glenbrook North sectional final.

The Spartans will face Vernon Hills, whom they'd beaten in the regular season, at noon Friday in a state quarterfinal at Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn. Glenbrook North (22-0) hopes to secure the program's fifth state trophy and its first boys volleyball state title since 1993.

"Personally, I've been working for four years to get to state," said Spartans setter Louie Batang, the Central Suburban League South player of the year. "Team-wise, we haven't been to state in a few years and we've been fighting for it. We've been working hard for it and it's a big accomplishment for us."

Batang distributed 30 assists over the two games. Outside hitters Yoel Gros and Abhiram Lakkamsani totaled 21 and 15 kills, respectively, and were pivotal in a long first game featuring 14 ties and a Glenbrook North rally from an 8-4 deficit.

"We started to get into a rhythm after the first 5, 10 points. Luckily we pulled that out, and then I think we just were able to carry that momentum in the second game," said Glenbrook North coach Chris Cooper, whose Spartans finished the regular season ranked fifth in the state by Illinois Prep Volleyball.

Glenbrook South (16-7) got a couple Cooper Evans dinks and scoring runs with Alex Rupprecht and libero Noah Varga serving to post their early lead in the first game.

"We ran our middles very effectively in the first game," said Titans coach Annie Kotsadam.

"Our middle, Porter Frerichs, had 5 kills and our middle, Kyle Busiel, was clicking with the setter (Mason Leone). Our outside had 6 kills, sophomore Alex Rupprecht, and our offense was working, serving was aggressive, keeping them out of their offense, making it difficult for them to run their middles."

Gros hammered the ball straight down to start chipping away, down 8-5. Klaud Rydzy's block of a Titans spike knotted the score at 12-12, and the Spartans took their first lead, 20-19, on Peter Bazianos' ace serve right on the back line.

"Louie, my setter, just really seemed to calm down and make great choices and he found the right hitter at the right time," Cooper said.

Glenbrook South twice held service on match point but couldn't close it out. First a Ryan Trout block then Lakkamsani's block-beating spike gave Glenbrook North the 29-27 victory.

"I have to think the match could have gone differently if we took one of those set points our way, absolutely," Kotsadam said.

Batang agreed. "I think winning that first set was very important for our morale, especially," he said. "We didn't play that well and for us to fight and crawl to win that game was a big morale boost. I think we needed to fight through that adversity to win the second set."

That set started tight, tied 5-5, before Rydzy and Gros assumed offensive control. The Glenbrook North student section's "start the buses" chant came after a Gros spike built the Spartans lead to 21-10, and he capped the victory with another kill from his familiar left side.

"Their passing broke down that second game and that allowed us to play defense, block them a few times," Cooper said.

Gros and Lakkamsani each had better than a .500 hitting percentage, the coach noted, while Bazianos and Rydzy totaled 8 kills apiece, Paul Syszynski 6, and Eli Joselit had 7 digs.

"Everybody contributed, it was just a great all-around team effort today, and that's what makes us good, is that we've got a lot of kids that contribute every night," Cooper said.

A No. 7 sectional seed to Glenbrook North's No. 1, Glenbrook South had hoped to win its first sectional title since 2013, one year after Glenbrook North's last sectional championship.

"The start of the season we started off kind of rocky, but I think as a team we just gelled really well through the end," said Glenbrook South senior Frerichs.

"We were getting our passes up, but our defense was just flowing and I think that carried us through. I think getting every ball up and then getting good attacks really helped us throughout the season."