Trevians top Spartans, get back on that state finals roll.
New Trier already owned 11 sectional titles in boys volleyball and had qualified for the state finals from 2014-19, six straight years.
COVID postponed that momentum in 2020.
The 2020-21 season?
"Just kind of average," veteran coach Sue Ellen Haak said.
Welcome back to the finals.
In Tuesday's Glenbrook South sectional championship, New Trier beat defending state champion and No. 1 seed Glenbrook North in three games, 12-25, 25-22, 25-23.
At 2 p.m. Friday at Hoffman Estates High School, New Trier will play Downers Grove South in the quarterfinals. The semifinal, third-place and championship matches all are on Saturday.
"It's so exciting for this team," Haak said.
"I think we could have lost the school expectation that we are a state team, and this team just wouldn't let it die. Even though we had bumps throughout the road this season, they'd always fight and want to get better," she said.
The No. 2 seed, New Trier (28-7) could have lost, period, had it not recovered from a lackluster start.
"The first game, they came out really jittery, they didn't play like a normal New Trier team, they made a lot of errors. We won big, but I knew that it wasn't going to stay that way," said Glenbrook North coach Chris Cooper, whose Spartans (29-4) had split two regular-season matches with New Trier, both in two games.
Going to a third game had no bearing on the match, Cooper said, and the first game had no bearing on New Trier the rest of the way, other than making the Trevians bear down.
"They got up big," Haak said of Game 1, "and I knew we couldn't save that set, but I knew it wasn't going to be an issue once we got back to 0-0."
In Game 2, New Trier went up 3-2 on 6-foot-8 sophomore David Wolff's block at the net. The slim lead held until Glenbrook North outside hitter Connor Durst made it 19-18, Spartans, by vaporizing a kill.
The edge volleyed back and forth, Haak taking a time out trailing 22-21. Once back on the court New Trier capitalized on a pair of Spartans errors and scored themselves on Max Mazur's spike to defeat a block, and then his own block for the 25-22 win.
Part of it was defense eventually turned to offense: New Trier senior libero Will Hopkins had 17 digs; sophomore setter Shane Sullivan had 12 assists to go with 5 service points.
"I think we wanted it more," said New Trier's 6-foot-4 Nathan Zoloto, who had 8 kills and 3 blocks, a big part of Haak's plan to establish her middle hitters.
"We were picking up more balls on defense, our crowd really helped us a lot. They had more people, but I felt like our crowd was way more into it, they were a lot more positive and they helped us win," Zoloto said.
Game 3 likewise was close throughout, Glenbrook North leading by no more than 3 points during Eli Joselit's early service run and later on a New Trier error.
The Trevians twice led by 4, once during Stefan Gjaja's own 6-point streak while serving. The senior setter had 12 service points during the match.
"That's the big thing, is that they served really tough those last two games," said Cooper, proud of players such as junior setter Paul Cho for playing at a championship level without much varsity experience.
"The second and third game, we got stuck in one rotation where they were able to run off a series of points. If it wasn't for those two runs of points we probably would have won, but that's what happens. Sometimes you just get stuck in a position where you don't get good swings and they're able to rack up points," Cooper said.
Glenbrook North rallied to tie 22-22 on Grant Kosla's block that rode the net then fell on New Trier's side.
New Trier went up 23-22 on a Spartans error, and 24-22 on Wolff's ace serve.
Durst kept Glenbrook North alive with the last of his 16 kills, but on the 24-23 match point Wolff answered with his own spike, 25-23 for the victory.
It's the outside hitter's second year of volleyball.
"We have a lot of seniors, 11 seniors, I think, on our team. For them to have me in the lineup as a sophomore, and having faith in me, it's pretty cool, and I wanted to do it for them," Wolff said.
"They've been on this team for two years now, most of them, and this is the year we think we can win it all."
Glenbrook North outside hitter Paul Wyszynski, the Central Suburban League South player of the year headed to George Mason University in Virginia, knows what that's like. He believes the Spartans will continue to compete at a state-caliber level.
"We've got a lot of young guys on our team, the team's young, we're only graduating a few seniors," said Wyszynski, who also had 16 kills. "I'll be here watching them win next year, and they will. They will win next year, because I know the guys. We've built a winning culture here and I know they've got it."
Zoloto said he's friends with many Glenbrook North players. He wasn't wild about bouncing his friends from the tournament.
To beat the defending champion, though, "it just feels great to win," he said.
"Someone's got to win."