Brannick, Minooka hang on to beat JCA

Minooka's Ryan Jacobson sets the ball in front of Matt Lindstrom (1) as Joliet Catholic's Matt Dollinger looks on.
(Larry Kane/For the Herald News)

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CHANNAHON — For Robbie Brannick, the overriding feeling was one of relief.

“Our passing fell apart and our defense was atrocious,” he said after the Minooka High School boys volleyball team escaped with a 25-21, 23-25, 25-22 victory over Joliet Catholic Academy on Monday night at Minooka’s South Campus.

“We’ve never had such bad defense before,” Brannick said. “We just kind of took it easy on them. We were up 17-11, I think, in that third game. Then, they went on an eight-point run to go ahead 18-17. That should never happen. Mentally, we fell apart. Physically, I don’t think we were ready for that kind of comeback.

“We did have to pull it out. I was afraid at 19-19. I kind of gave up hope. Our passing — like I said — was off. I was afraid I couldn’t get a set to Matt (Phillips) so he could put one away and we could get the lead back. But it all worked out well. They had a hitting error. We took the lead again. Momentum went toward us.”

Brannick, the Minooka senior right-side hitter and setter, helped the Indians survive a roller-coaster ride with his all-around play. He finished with 14 assists, nine kills, eight blocks and six digs.

Minooka (11-2) built leads in each of the three games, then saw JCA fight back, in large part behind the play of its big guns — seniors Mike Ranzini and Mike Ericksen, juniors Matt Dollinger and Keegan Roberts and sophomore Gus Warpinski. The Hilltoppers (15-9) eventually saw their bid to win by a close shave go by the wayside on a close call.

The Indians used a kill by sophomore middle hitter Kevin Hannon to open a 23-21 lead in Game 3. JCA closed within 23-22 on Ranzini’s booming cross-court kill. Then, after a JCA service error enabled Minooka to lead 24-22, the Indians’ Ryne Jacobson stepped to the back line.

He launched a serve and a rally that ended with JCA being whistled for an illegal backrow attack by its setter. JCA coach Rhyen Staley protested the call — but to no avail.

“The setter was backcourt, and the ball was close to the net,” Ranzini said. “We obviously thought it was still on our side. When he went up to set it, the ref said the ball was actually over the net. And, if you’re back row and you try to go across the plane, that gets called as a backrow attack. You can’t do that. We thought it was still was on our side.

“The ref’s called it on the other side. It’s too bad. We didn’t want it to end like that.”

Ranzini plays club ball with Hannon, an old family friend. The two posed for photographs afterward.

“My mom and his mom went to school together, so we’re good friends,” Ranzini said. “We’ll laugh about this over the summer. Yeah, he’ll have bragging rights. But we’ll still laugh about it.”

Phillips led Minooka with 18 kills, 12 digs and two blocks. Jacobson added 14 assists, eight digs and three blocks. Hannon had 10 kills and four blocks. John Hynek chipped in nine blocks and two kills. Matt Lindstrom totaled 29 digs.

The Indians utilized their big front line to block almost every shot JCA took in the early going. Then, the Hilltoppers found a few cracks and began chipping away, rallying from down 4-0 and 7-1 to win the second game on two straight service points by Matt Tyler, one of them an ace.

“We weren’t closing the block as much as we should have,” Minooka coach Janel Grzetich said. “And, with our defense, we were sitting back on our heels a little too much instead of anticipating where the ball was going to go. We were reacting a couple seconds too late.

“So, that was a problem. Also, our serve-receive started to break down and our passing — the first game compared to the second, it looked like an entirely different team out there. It says a lot that we were able to win anyway.

“It says we have a few kids on the team that step up. They act as leaders. They bring the guys together. And they pull from within themselves.”

What the match lacked in beauty, it made up for in suspense.

“We just had to buckle down and come back and focus on our passing and clean up the stuff on our side,” Ranzini said. “We cut down the service errors and stopped making some of the other errors, too. And, right, then it was a good match. I was excited about coming over here, excited for the match, excited to play them.”