Pressure? What pressure?
Buffalo Grove continues to relish the role of underdog as it upset another higher-ranked team Friday. This time, the Bison (31-9) stunned No. 2 Providence in two games in the boys state volleyball quarterfinals at Hoffman Estates.
And Buffalo Grove made it look easy, claiming a 15-12, 15-5 decision to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
Next on the agenda: top-ranked Oak Park at noon Saturday.
“We’ve been underdogs all year,” said setter Matt Aiello, who had 14 assists, two aces and two kills. “We weren’t supposed to win, so we’ve had no pressure.”
Friday’s victory was the Bisons’ third straight over a higher-ranked team.
“We beat a Fremd team that was ranked third in the state, a Prospect team that was fourth and Providence that was No. 2,” said Bison coach Kyle Reid. “We’ve been playing good volleyball like this for the past month.”
Providence (35-2), meanwhile, was not much of a factor except for an early stretch of Game 1.
“Not taking anything away from Buffalo Grove, they’re a great team,” said Celtics outside hitter Luke Olczyk. “But we beat ourselves . . . It’s not one or two specific things. All they did was put the ball on our side, and we screwed up.”
“We played a crappy game, that’s what happened,” said Celtics coach Cindy Olczyk, whose team came in with a 30-match winning streak.
“When we made an error, we just kept it in and didn’t blow it off . . . and it just snowballed.”
Buffalo Grove, which never trailed, broke an 8-8 tie to win going away in Game 1.
Providence rallied to within 14-12 but lost the serve on a Scott Miller cross-court kill. The Celtics then gave the Bison the game-winning point with a shot out of bounds.
Buffalo Grove opened Game 2 with a 6-1 run as setter Brent Agran collected a pair of kills. Providence closed to 7-4 before the game turned into a rout as Buffalo Grove scored seven straight.
Reid said last week’s scouting trip to watch Providence helped.
“We went and watched them at their sectional championship match (against Sandburg) and we got some good ideas,” he said. “But I don’t think it was as much strategy as it was our intensity and focus and serving aggressively–things we’ve been doing all year.”
Miller closed with eight kills and Gerken five for the Bison. Brad Stoub paced Providence with a match-high 10 kills, while Rhyen Staley had nine.
