Joliet West outlasts Romeoville in three to claim third straight regional title

JOLIET – All season, the story of the Joliet West volleyball team has been that the Tigers are balanced and gritty.

That was never more evident than during Thursday’s 25-14, 24-26, 25-22 win over Romeoville in the Class 4A Joliet West Regional title match.

The Tigers (28-9) made quick work of the Spartans (19-17) in the first set, winning 25-14, and threatened to do it again in the second set. Joliet West had match point at 24-16, and the Tigers’ Julia Adams, who began the first set with a six-point serving run, was at the service line.

Romeoville’s Aubrea Baldwin, however, kept the Tigers from celebrating their third straight regional title with a kill, bringing teammate Kameron Blizniak to the service line. All Blizniak did was serve nine straight points, including four aces, to give the Spartans an improbable 26-24 victory to send the match to a winner-take-all third set.

Compounding matters for West was an injury to freshman Lexie Grevengoed, who had a team-high eight kills up to that point, on the point that made it 24-24. Grevengoed did not return to the match, although she was on the Tigers’ bench, giving support to her teammates throughout the decisive third set.

Romeoville kept up the momentum from the second-set win and got out to a 3-0 lead on kills by Milena Stepien and Lianna Ortiz, who had a match-high 10 kills. Joliet West, which plays at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Bolingbrook Sectional against Oswego, a 25-12, 25-23 winner over Yorkville, countered with three straight points of its own, getting a block by Faith Jordan and back-to-back kills by Eden Eyassu (seven kills, 10 digs) to tie it at 3. After Romeoville took the lead on a kill by Ortiz, West’s Lina Govoni sparked a 9-2 run with back-to-back kills, and West led 13-6.

“This was a really fun match,” said Joliet West’s Mady Gant, who was a force in the middle with three blocks and five kills. “After we lost Lexie and then lost the second set, we knew we had to stay composed and play together. There was do doubt that we would pull through.

“The whole team stepped up. We needed to believe in ourselves and in our teammates and that’s what we did.”

Romeoville, however, was far from done.

The Spartans, dealing with adversity of their own as head coach Paige Reinert was absent because of a recent medical emergency, refused to back down and chipped away at the Tigers’ lead. A kill by Ortiz brought them to within 18-17 before Arianna Thomas had three kills to make it 20-20.

After another tie at 21, the Spartans got a combined block by Stepien and Gabriella Villanueva to move ahead 22-21, but it was the last point they scored. The Tigers got the serve back on a kill by Jordan (four blocks, four kills). With Sidney Barlog serving, Govoni (eight kills, 10 digs, seven assists) sandwiched a pair of kills around a Romeoville hitting error to give her team the title.

“I am very proud of the way the girls overcame adversity,” West coach Chris Lincoln said. “Romeoville always plays us tough. We know we are going to have to earn every single point against them. They never give up.

“But, I am proud of the way we stuck together. At the end, we had a sophomore middle (Penny Wagner) playing on the outside. This is the third regional in a row for the first time in school history. That was definitely one of our goals.”

Blizniak finished with 24 assists to go with three kills and five aces for Romeoville, while Baldwin had seven kills and Thomas had four. Alexis Crowley had a team-high 16 digs.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these girls,” Romeoville coach Shelby Pemble said. “There is no quit in these girls. We’ve had quite a few comebacks this year, but scoring 10 straight points to win the second set was amazing. And it was great because a lot of girls stepped up.

“These girls just kept going, even when they had a new coach come in during the last week of the season. For them to keep working as hard as they did really says a lot about them.”