Romeoville stays on hot stretch with two-set win over Bolingbrook

BOLINGBROOK – Romeoville coach Paige Reinert admitted it herself. There were people who anticipated the Spartans spending 2024 rebuilding after losing eight seniors to graduation.

Early on, those people looked like they were right. But for the past dozen matches or so, the Spartans have blown expectations out of the water.

On the road against a talented Bolingbrook team, the Spartans were calm, cool and collected. Romeoville overcame an early deficit to seize control and earn a 25-19, 25-19 win against the Raiders on Thursday.

The win moves the Spartans to 11-8 on the season and 5-1 in the Southwest Prairie Conference. Bolingbrook is 11-13 overall and 2-3 in the SPC.

The victory means the Spartans’ recent hot streak continues. They’ve now won nine of their past 11 contests and had won four straight prior to dropping a contest to Timothy Christian. Thursday night marked the second consecutive victory for the Spartans. Not bad for a volleyball program that began the year 2-6.

“We started a little slow, but that happens when you have a lot of underclassmen,” senior setter Kameron Blizniak said. “We’re playing with a lot of new people, but I think we’re doing amazing. The connection has grown a lot and we’re trying to build it a lot in practice through team bonding. I think we’re doing a really good job of pushing through until postseason.”

Early on Thursday, the team looked closer to how they did in the beginning of the season than they did in the past 11 matches. Bolingbrook initially jumped out to a 4-1 advantage thanks to a pair of kills by Angie Pena before the Spartans narrowed the deficit to 4-3.

A 3-1 run put Bolingbrook back in a comfortable position before Romeoville answered with a 4-1 run to tie the set at 8.

An error by Bolingbrook later put Romeoville up for the first time 10-9. The Spartans built their advantage to 13-10 before a 4-1 run by Bolingbrook was punctuated with a block from Ayanna Davis to tie it back up at 14. The Spartans got red-hot from there, however, going on a 6-0 run led by Emme Jurgens. It was 5-5 the rest of the way, but that was enough to give the opening set to Romeoville.

“I think our hitters really stepped up,” Reinert said. “They listened well and hit [their] shots. Our underclassmen defenders really went in. They really got a lot of touches and came together as a team to play well.”

The second set was far more comfortable for Romeoville. The Raiders were competitive for the early part, trailing 9-7. A 4-1 run started by a Milena Stepien block extended the advantage to 13-8 for the Spartans.

After two straight points for the Raiders, Romeoville used a 4-0 run, with a Lianna Ortiz kill putting them ahead 18-10.

Again, credit Bolingbrook. The Raiders refused to give up without a fight. Later trailing 22-14, a kill by Noelle Aprati started a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 22-19. The Spartans regained control from there, scoring three unanswered points to take the set and the match.

Ortiz led the Spartans with 13 kills while Jugens added three aces and five digs. Blizniak had 25 assists, Stepien added three blocks and Alexis Crowley finished with seven digs.