West Aurora spikes Lemont

West Aurora's Kyle Pilmer goes up for a spike against Lemont
(Donnell Collins/Special to the Beacon News)

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With the season on the line, the injury-riddled West Aurora boys volleyball team tenaciously contorted, dove and dug for every ball within it's reach Monday during a Waubonsie Valley Regional match against Lemont.

The never-die spirit of the Blackhawks persevered with a 25-14, 16-25, 25-20 win over the Indians.

"We're just trying to move on," said senior co-captain Enrique Figueroa, "and take one game at a time."

West Aurora jumped out to an early lead in game one, when it strung together runs of seven and eight unanswered points within minutes of each other.

In the second game, Lemont roared back with aggressive play as the Blackhawks pounded the ball out of bounds.

"We were kind of flat and really didn't push ourselves," said Blackhawks' coach Jen Towers of game two."

With the score tied at one game apiece, West Aurora won the tie break toss and got out to a 2-0 in the final exciting game. As the score see-sawed back and forth with a point here and a point there, the Blackhawks were able to bear down and get the job done after breaking a 19-19 tie.

Freshman Kyle Pilmer served the final two points of the match.

"I was just trying to put them in," he said. "I was trying to get their libero (Ryan Stanley) because he was struggling a lot."

Figueroa led the Blackhawks with 11 kills, followed by teammate Josh Sniezek with five.

"I tried to take it one play, one game, one match," Figueroa said.

Mike Her had 15 digs for West Aurora, while Pilmer led the team with three blocks.

Lemont was led on the court by Jason Zagraniczny and Joey Petboldt. "We put it all out there," said Indians' coach Jeana Parry, "and that is all you can ask for at the end of the season."

West Aurora meets No. 1 seeded Naperville Central tonight at 6:30 p.m., followed by a match-up with host Waubonsie Valley and Minooka.

"We're really happy," said Pilmer, "we had a fifty-fifty chance. And we'll take it game by game."