Boys volleyball: Glenbard East gets the job done in regional opener
Kills don't always have to be works of art.
"Sometimes you just have to get the ball over and in," said Glenbard East coach Marci Maier.
Adrian Cebula's ninth and final kill of Tuesday's regional semifinal at Naperville North was anything but Metropolitan Museum material. But it fluttered over the net with enough spin to elude two Bolingbrook defenders and send the Rams to Wednesday's regional championship match.
Third-seeded Glenbard East bounced back from a crushing second set loss to defeat No. 19 Bolingbrook 25-19, 15-25, 25-23 and advance to Wednesday's championship match.
Glenbard East (28-8) might have been relegated to nonparticipatory status if not for Cebula, who sandwiched a pair of aces around a Bolingbrook miscue to give the Rams a 17-13 lead in Game 3 and force the Raiders to take a timeout.
"It's always one ball at a time," said Cebula, a 6-foot middle hitter. "You just got to get the job done. Do your job. Play for the person next to you. That's about it. That's all you do. Keep your mind in the game and nowhere else."
Cebula's seventh kill of the match, the straight-down variety that landed just a few feet behind the net, drew oohs and ahhs from the Glenbard East bench and gave the Rans a 23-21 lead. But Bolingbrook tied the set on a pair of Glenbard East errors.
"Our coach told us the second set wasn't going to be easy and it wasn't," Cebula said. "I think we just underestimated them and thought it would be a breeze. They brought it (in the third game) and we just had to bring it back."
Cebula owned the next point, sending a perfect pass to Matt Arnold to set up his eighth kill and give the Rams a 24-23 lead. His subsequent flutterball ended a long and tentative rally and drew a sigh of relief from his teammates and coach.
"Adrian just caught fire," Maier said. "He blocked a few balls, ripped a few balls, and our passing improved so that we were able to get him the ball. Mason Arnold was flying all over the court. Justin Murphy was taking big swings. It was just heart and hustle. Everybody out there was giving it their all."
Arnold led the Glenbard East stat parade with 17 assists, 7 kills and 22 digs. Murphy had 7 kills and 8 digs, Peter Surlina had 9 digs and Matt Smith contributed 6 kills.
Bolingbrook (12-19) got 13 kills from 6-6 junior Andrew Otto, 12 kills from 6-3 sophomore Rocco Wardlow and 31 assists from Ryan Van Thyne.
"I've been telling my guys since the beginning of the season they can play with just about any team in the state when they play up to their potential and play together as a team," said Bolingbrook coach Ryan Altenburg. "Glenbard East is a really good team and they picked up their defense down the stretch."