Frederick closes out Joliet's win over Raiders

BOLINGBROOK — In the end, Joliet Township finally executed.

After struggling all match against a game Bolingbrook squad, the Steelmen pulled out a 25-23, 19-25, 29-27 victory in a Southwest Suburban Blue battle on Wednesday.

Senior outside hitter Greg Frederick put down the final 2 kills to end it.

“Three games has been the story of our season and we just had to execute our passing and sets more,” said Greg Frederick, whose twin brother Dylan Frederick is also an outside hitter.

But up until that point the match was very much up for grabs. Game 3 featured 15 ties. The Steelmen (14-8, 5-5) finally converted on their sixth match point opportunity.

“We played them in the regional last year and it went three games too,” said Greg Frederick of his team’s 25-21, 17-25, 25-23 victory last year.

But it was a little scary for JT. The Raiders (2-12, 0-9) looked to be done when they went down 17-13 in Game 3. But they reeled off 5 straight points — including a pair of kills by junior left side hitter Nick Tate, to take an 18-17 advantage.

That would be the last lead for Bolingbrook, but there were seven ties that followed — including the Raiders fighting off two match points to tie at 24-24.

“Bolingbrook didn’t give up and played a tough match,” JT coach Jason Herrmann said.

The Steelmen committed a whopping 20 service errors in the match. They had eight in Game 3, including two in a row when serving for the match at 26-25 and 27-26.

Greg Frederick, who buzzed his hair so it’s now easier to to tell him apart from his brother, actually did put in a couple of serves that ended up as aces. He also added 10 kills and 10 digs.

Dylan Frederick led the way with 13 kills and 9 digs. Senior outside hitter Josh Tucek added eight kills and 10 digs.

Senior middle blocker Phil Murray had four kills, junior middle hitter Bryan Saunders also added 4 kills and senior setter Eric Black dished out 25 assists.

JT used a 6-1 spurt in Game 1 to take a 12-6 advantage. The Steelmen extended the lead to 17-10, but Bolingbrook showed it wasn’t going quietly with a 5-point run that included a kill by junior middle hitter Julian Scharer (4 kills, 3 blocks), an ace by junior middle hitter Tony Young and a kill by junior right side hitter Steven Hidalgo.

The Raiders eventually tied the game for the first, and only time, at 20-20 on a push kill to the right side from junior setter Nate Randall. JT won the opener on a kill by Tucek.

The closest JT could get in Game 2 was 13-11 on a tip kill by junior middle hitter Alex Smothers (3 kills), and down the stretch the Steelmen never got closer than 21-18.

Tate led the Raiders with 10 kills, including one that tied the final game at 25-25, and senior setter Brandon Nelson contributed three kills and two blocks.

“I’m very proud of our players, we played our hearts out,” Bolingbrook coach Andrea Bercot said.