Oak Lawn’s reign as state volleyball champion is over.
Rolling Meadows ended the Spartans’ bid to win a second straight title Friday, recording a 15-4, 15-13 victory in the state quarterfinals in Hoffman Estates.
In the opening match, York defeated West Suburban Conference rival Morton 16-14, 10-15, 15-12. In the other bracket, Niles North upset Wheaton North and New Trier dumped Sandburg.
Rolling Meadows was led by the powerful trio of 6-foot-7-inch Ted Groves, 6-4 Justin Griffiths and 6-0 Tim Piatek. Each had six kills, and Groves added two blocks. Kevin Seifert had 14 assists.
“I think they’re excellent,” Oak Lawn coach Jane Surma said of Rolling Meadows. “They’re real nice in the middle and they dig out everything.
“I thought we played tight the first game. There’s a lot of pressure playing as the defending state champions.”
Rolling Meadows gained momentum instantly, racing to a 12-1 advantage. Groves connected on three kills, and Oak Lawn looked a bit lost.
“It was almost deja vu of last Saturday,” said Mustangs coach Mike Duellman. “The roll just kept on going. Last Saturday we were like that for two games. That first game was like `My God, we didn’t lose it over the week.’ “
The Mustangs’ dominance carried over into the second game as it pulled ahead 7-2 and appeared to be on the way to another blowout. Oak Lawn, however, wasn’t ready to concede anything just yet.
The Spartans’ Kevin Campbell connected on a kill and then a block, the latter evening things up at 7. Oak Lawn pulled ahead 13-12 as Corey Murrey recorded one of his seven kills.
“I was actually more concerned about Murrey ,” stated Duellman. “I watched the tape of last year’s championship match and he scared me. He jumps like crazy and he hits hard, and he does things you can’t always control.”
The Mustangs regained control, finishing off the Spartans by scoring the final three points on kills by Groves and Piatek, and finally a missed spike attempt by Murrey.
“I’m glad we’re playing in the semifinals,” explained Duellman, whose team has won 32 straight games after starting the season 1-2. “That’s all I’m glad about. We played the defending state champs. I wasn’t thrilled with that prospect–I’m thrilled we won. I hope the defending state champ was the toughest team down here, but I don’t know what will happen .”
In the first match of the afternoon, York avenged an early-season loss to Morton. The Dukes were paced by Ryan Weber and Tim Stratton, who had eight kills each, and Omar Gonzalez’s seven kills.
The first game was the most exciting of the three. Trailing 11-7, York rallied behind two kills by Gonzalez and an ace by sophomore Antonio DiCosola.
With the score 14-all, Gonzalez dropped a shot over two Morton defenders, whom were in position for a block. The decisive point came on a spike by DiCosola.
“I thought they outplayed us the first game,” said York coach Andy Laux, whose team improves to 20-6-1. “Right at the end we just sort of snuck up and ran it out on them. That was really big, because I didn’t think at that point that either team was playing all that well.”
York came up with another strong finish in the last game. Leading 11-10, the Dukes pulled away behind the combination of a handful of unforced errors by Morton and kills by Stratton, Don McKenzie and Weber.
“We came out a little nervous,” said Laux. “We just battled and hung tough even though we weren’t really on top of our game.”
“I really didn’t think about this as a state match,” explained Weber. “I thought of it as we have to play this game and come back and show them we can beat them.”
This was especially important for the five seniors for York–Hans Shin, Gonzalez, DiCosola, McKenzie and Weber–none of whom had experienced a victory in their careers against Morton.
“We had to do it together as a team,” said Gonzalez. “We stuck together and we did it–as a team.”
Morton was led by Jason Michniewcz’s 16 kills, Raul Gonzalez’s 15 kills and Chris Steponaitis’ 13 kills.
