RedHawks rally to oust Thunderbolts

Marist coach Bob St. Leger made a promise to then-sophomore Evan Bruton two years ago.

“Coach told me, ‘By the time you leave Marist, I’m going to take you to state,’ ” Bruton said.

St. Leger made good on that pledge Tuesday night in Calumet City.

Bruton and the No. 2 RedHawks outfought a scrappy Andrew team 21-25, 25-14, 25-14 to claim the T.F. North Sectional championship in front of a near-capacity crowd.

With the win, Marist will make its first appearance in the state finals since 2002, when it won the school’s only championship in boys volleyball.

The RedHawks will take on Maine South on Friday night at Hoffman Estates in a state quarterfinal match.

“I’m still in shock right now,” said Bruton, a senior who contributed 11 kills and seven blocks in the win. “I can’t believe that we’re going to state. We’ve had some pretty good chances to get there the last few years, but this was maybe our best chance and we were able to do it.”

The RedHawks (34-5) received a dominating performance from Joe Smalzer (17 kills, eight blocks).

“Joe is a once-in-a-lifetime player. He really is,” St. Leger said. “When you combine him and Evan and the other guys we have, you really have the makings of a special group. These guys earned this win tonight.”

After the RedHawks dropped Game 1, Smalzer said neither he nor his teammates felt any pressure.

“We actually have drills that we work on in practice that call for us to come back from deficits,” Smalzer said. “So when you work on things like that all the time and apply that pressure in practice, it makes actually doing it and responding to it (a deficit) in a game a little easier.”

The RedHawks led briefly at 1-0 in the opener, but never gained the advantage again in the game.

Andrew (25-13) clung to several small leads and fought off multiple Marist rallies throughout Game 1. Marist tied the game on four separate occasions, but was never able to pull ahead. After the RedHawks tied the game at 20 on a block by Bruton, Andrew went on a 5-1 run to close Game 1.

Marist raced out to an 8-3 lead in Game 2 and never looked back. The RedHawks used a 7-1 run midway through the game — the highlights a kill and block from Smalzer — to take a 19-8 advantage.

Marist established a 14-7 lead in Game 3 after a block by Smalzer.

The RedHawks used a block from Bruton and several Thunderbolts hitting errors to end the match on a 6-2 run.

Andrew coach Troy Hari was extremely proud of his team’s effort both in the match and throughout the season.

“These guys really accomplished a lot this year,” Hari said. “We’re really going to miss our seniors. They were a great group who accomplished a lot. We beat Sandburg for the first time since 1995 and won our first regional since that time as well. So it was a great year. They had nothing to hang their heads about.”

The Thunderbolts were paced by Zach Betley’s 11 kills.