Girls volleyball: Bolingbrook holds off Romeoville to win Lincoln-Way West Regional

NEW LENOX — Both Bolingbrook and Romeoville are a part of the Valley View School District, making Thursday’s championship of the Class 4A Lincoln-Way West Regional more than just a regional title match. District bragging rights were on the line as well.

Never mind that Bolingbrook has had a record-breaking season with 31 wins and is seeded second in the Lockport Sectional. Romeoville, the 11th seed, didn’t care about seeds. The Spartans were going to give the Raiders all they had.

They certainly did that, but Bolingbrook was able to hold off the challenge and come away with a 25-17, 24-26, 25-23 victory.

“This was everything you would want in a regional title match,” Bolingbrook coach Molly DeSerf said. “[Romeoville coach] Paige [Reinert} has done an incredible job with that group of girls, and they are young. There is a ton to look forward to for Romeoville.

“It was good for us to have to play in a match like this. Every match from now on is going to be tight like this one.”

It was clear from the start that Romeoville (14-16) wasn’t going to roll over. The Spartans jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set and continued to play inspired volleyball.

Bolingbrook, meanwhile, weathered the early storm and used the 1-2 hitting punch of Madison Shroba (14 kills) and Cydney Anderson (10 kills) to move ahead, 17-10.

The Raiders (32-4) got kills from Chinenye Ifeajewku, Angelique Pena and Anderson and took a 22-12 lead before Romeoville showed some life and rallied to within 23-17 on the strength of two kills by Chloe Anderson and a block by Demi Cole. Bolingbrook got a block by Noelle Aprati and a kill by Sarah Harvey to end the set.

The Raiders carried the momentum into the second set, taking a 5-0 lead as Shroba had a block, Ifeajewku had a kill and Harvey served an ace.

This time, it was Romeoville’s turn to put together a run. The Spartans scored the next seven points, getting two aces from Kameron Blizniak and a block from Taylor Cicero (4 kills, 5 blocks) in the stretch, to take a 7-5 lead.

The match see-sawed after that with Bolingbrook inching ahead 17-15 on kills by Pena and Cydney Anderson. Romeoville, though, scored four straight, with Chloe Anderson getting back-to-back kills and Cicero adding another for a 19-17 Spartan lead.

Romeoville took a 22-20 lead before Bolingbrook got kills from Shroba and Pena to tie it at 22. It was tied again at 23 and 24 before Romeoville won as Bolingbrook made back-to-back hitting errors.

“Our girls have absolutely nothing to hang their heads about,” Reinert said. “All of the girls came to play. We are real young. For most of the match, we had two freshmen and two sophomores out there, and they played awesome defense for us. The kept the ball alive.

“Chloe Anderson set a school record for kills in a season tonight (189). She beat it by one. This was the best we have played all season, and I was happy to see our seniors go out swinging.”

Bolingbrook, which has relied on the outside hitting prowess of Shroba, Cydney Anderson and Harvey for most of the season, turned to the middle in the third set, and Aprati and Pena came through. With the Raiders leading 9-7, Aprati had a block and a kill on consecutive points for an 11-7 lead and a pair of Romeoville hitting errors put Bolingbrook ahead 13-7.

“Our two middles, the freshman and the sophomore, played really well,” DeSerf said. “Sometimes it’s hard to go the middle, but those two were up and ready when the ball came to them.

“And Madison Shroba is a rock for us. She does a lot of things. She’s very smart and composed, and knows what to do when.”

After Romeoville rallied to within 13-10, Aprati delivered another kill out of a Raider timeout to squelch the Spartan uprising. Bolingbrook held a 20-16 lead after a kill by Ifeajewku, but Romeoville closed to within 23-22 after an ace by Cole.

A serving error put Bolingbrook ahead 24-22, but Blizniak delivered a kill to make it 24-23. Shroba finished things off with a kill.

“This was a fun match to be in,” Shroba said. “We beat them earlier in the season, but it was in the first couple weeks of the season and they are an entirely different team now.

“It took us a while, but we finally realized who we were. We wanted to finish the match and not let them keep hanging around, but they played really well. We knew if we could just get a little bit of cushion, we would be OK.

“It feels really good to win the regional again, but we aren’t done. We know it won’t be easy the rest of the way, but we feel like we have a lot of games left.”