OPRF Boys V-Ball Earns Elite Eight Berth

Oak Park-River Forest boys volleyball coach Don August figured his team would live up to its No. 1 sectional seed, but admitted you never know what’s going to happen until you play the games.

Throw in the nerves that can come with playing in front of a large playoff crowd and add that his club had to play a team on its home court and the result becomes even more unpredictable.

A call here, a break there and suddenly anything can happen.

As it turned out, August had nothing to worry about. The Huskies delivered an all-around, strong performance on the big stage to sweep third-seeded host St. Ignatius 25-17, 25-23 in the sectional finals Tuesday night in Chicago.

“We played pretty comfortable tonight,” August said. “I thought we played a little bit more nervous on Friday than tonight. Tonight we seemed to be more relaxed – just pretty confident and pretty determined. I never saw us look worried at all. Even though the game was close we looked confident.”

Both teams came out blasting hits and playing strong defense. Game 1 was tied at 13 when OPRF (27-12) made its move. The Huskies scored seven of the next eight points – starting with a Ben Wilks kill and ending with a Diego Rodriguez-Guerrios jump-served ace – to take a 20-14 lead.

Holding a 22-17 advantage, OPRF closed out the opener on an Owen Brady kill off a dig, a Mike Fredrick ace and a D.J. Valenti kill.

“The first game was really good,” Valenti said. “All season we’ve never really played in front of a crowd like this, so it was kind of interesting to see how we would come out. I thought we came out with a lot of energy, and it was definitely a lot of fun. I think for the first time we stopped worrying about losing and we just started enjoying what was going on. Usually we make a mistake and everyone kind of panics, but today we laughed it off and kept going.”

In Game 2, OPRF scored three-straight points on a kill by Wilks, an ace by Alex Berton and a lift call against St. Ignatius (23-15) to pull ahead 15-13. The visitors protected their slim lead the rest of the way. They held a 24-20 advantage after Jim Kasang smacked a kill on a slide before the Wolfpack recorded the next three points to close to 24-23.

The home team’s rally ended there. St. Ignatius served the ball out, giving OPRF the victory.

It’s OPRF’s 12th sectional title, but first since 2008. The Huskies will meet Naperville North in the state quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Friday at Hoffman Estates High School.

Wilks and St. Ignatius’ Rimas Grybauskas each finished with a match-high 10 kills.

“We definitely played well as a team today,” Wilks said. “Everyone came to play.”

“Our back row, Ben (Wilks), Mike (Fredrick), Owen (Brady), they all passed really well,” Valenti said. “That made it a lot easier on the hitters.”

Kasang, Kemper and Brady each registered four kills for the winners. Rodriguez-Guerrios collected 27 assists and chipped in two kills.

“We gave it our all,” Rodriguez-Guerrios said. “We made a lot of defensive plays. That helped get the momentum. We served very well. We did everything well. We had a very well-rounded, all-around game.”

Afterward, OPRF learned that Naperville North knocked off top-ranked Wheaton Warrenville South 25-21, 22-25, 25-23 in the Illinois Math and Science Academy sectional final in Aurora. Back on April 1, the Huskies defeated Naperville North 25-14, 19-25, 25-15 in the Wheaton Warrenville South tournament.

“Confidence-wise that will be in our favor because we know we can beat them and they know we can beat them,” August said.