Reavis makes Mustangs work for win

Reavis certainly made host St. Rita sweat during the teams' sectional semifinal battle Friday night.

Both literally and figuratively.

The top-seeded and 10th-ranked Mustangs needed every ounce of energy and determination they could muster to hold off the fourth-seeded Rams 25-16, 21-25, 25-22 in front of a packed house.

Morton won the second semifinal, 22-25, 25-21, 21-14 over Brother Rice, and will face St. Rita in Tuesday's sectional final.

With Reavis (23-13) holding a 19-18 lead late in Game 3, Dave Fashingbauer and his Mustangs teammates knew they were on the brink of elimination and had to respond.

"We could see the end of our season right there in front of us," a sweat-drenched Fashingbauer said. "We went out in the semifinal last year and it just wasn't going to happen again. We all met in the middle during a timeout and decided we weren't going out like that."

They didn't.

St. Rita (26-9) took advantage of a Reavis hitting error and got two kills from Fashingbauer, a kill from Bobby Gallagher and a block by Colin Anderson to take a 23-19 lead.

"Reavis gave us everything they had," St. Rita coach Jill Nagel said. "And really at this point in the season, that's exactly how it should be. You want to earn every win you get. You want to get everyone's best and that's definitely what we got from Reavis."

Rams coach Bob Wielgos, who has plenty of young talent on his roster, found it hard to be disappointed with his team's effort.

"That was awesome," he said. "That's exactly what this time of year is all about. After we got beat in that first game, I just told our guys to relax and enjoy this. As an athlete you want to be in the spotlight in the big game. Our guys really gained some valuable experience here tonight."

The Mustangs were paced by Fashingbauer (10 kills, two aces, two blocks). John Bisiules (nine kills, two blocks), Nick Ardolino (seven kills, five blocks) and libero Mike Newton (13 digs) all contributed.

Reavis received stellar efforts from Urim Demirovski (11 kills) and Tyler Bennett (10 kills).

The Mustangs used a 4-0 run in Game 1 to take an 18-11 advantage. The highlights were back-to-back kills from Joe Biros.

Reavis capitalized on several St. Rita miscues to take a 12-7 advantage in Game 2. St. Rita, despite several strong runs, was never able to cut the lead to less than two throughout the remainder of the game.

Reavis also got off to a fast start in Game 3, jumping out to a 6-2 lead thanks in part to a pair of kills from Demirovski.

St. Rita then went on a 7-1 run to take control at 9-7. The highlights were a kill and block by Andrew Kats on consecutive plays.

The Rams fought back to take a 19-18 lead on a kill by George Andrews that capped a 6-2 run.

Fashingbauer finished the Rams off with a thunderous kill to end the match.