Boys volleyball: Glenbard West beats Hinsdale Central to reach state semifinals again

Glenbard West saw a lot of itself in West Suburban Silver rival Hinsdale Central. Just a few years difference, is all.

The Hilltoppers' experience showed when they defeated the Red Devils 25-15, 25-21 Friday afternoon in an IHSA boys volleyball quarterfinal at Hoffman Estates. The Hilltoppers advanced to the semifinals for the seventh time since 2011, a run that includes state championships in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The Hilltoppers (37-3) will meet New Trier in a 10 a.m. Saturday semifinal, with the championship match scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Hinsdale Central (31-10) was stopped in the quarterfinals for a third time since 2015, but the Red Devils have the look of a future championship contender under second-year coach Stephanie Kaegebein.

"This is a first step for Hinsdale Central," Glenbard West coach Christine Giunta-Mayer said. "There's only better stuff coming from them. I've been in (Kaegebein's) shoes."

But Friday the Hilltoppers played like a team that knows what to expect when it gets to state, from the first two serves from senior Henry Curtis, both aces, through the final point of a much closer second set.

"It's still definitely a very big deal," Hilltoppers senior Connor Williams said. "We take every game as of the utmost importance. We do our best to treat every team as if it's the championship. We're going to go out there and play every point like it's our last and play a good game."

"I don't think it was as much how they played," Hinsdale Central senior Cal Snyder added. "It's more I feel like a lot of stuff we weren't super used to. We were out of our element, obviously. The first time a lot of players had come ... so this is a new experience for a lot of them. And a lot of stuff even for Gavin (Schwarz) and I, who'd been here sophomore year, weren't ready for also. So after we got our feet set we started rolling, but other than that, I feel like it was just uncharacteristic mistakes."

The Hilltoppers used the momentum from Curtis' two aces to start the match to build leads of 6-1, 16-7 and 21-12.

"The fans were going crazy and that gave us momentum, and we just kept going at them full speed," Hilltoppers junior Nicco Cavalcante said.

The second set had a much different feel, in part because it was the Red Devils' Bryce Bernard who opened with an ace. The teams tied 11 times in the second set and changed leads seven times until the Hilltoppers took the lead for good 21-20 on a net violation.

"We knew that we took the foot off the gas pedal a little bit, but we know that we have to keep on going for every single point in the state series," Hilltoppers senior Ryan Swartz said.

The Hilltoppers and Red Devils were joined in the quarterfinals by fellow WSC Silver member Oak Park-River Forest, which beat Barrington in two sets to advance to the other semifinal against Marist.

"That's pretty remarkable," Giunta-Mayer said of having three league teams at state. "That's quite a statement for what our conference is like. We won our conference this year and it was not easy, by a long shot it wasn't easy. I think that in itself helped prepare us."