Calm and cool Celtics collect historic victory

Providence's Eric Daliege (5) celebrates with his team after they beat Glenbrook North.
(Matt Marton/SouthtownStar)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Top-ranked Providence made history by refusing to let history repeat itself at the 17th boys volleyball tournament Friday at Hoffman Estates.

Down a match point after squandering a five-point lead in Game 3, the Celtics took advantage of two Glenbrook North hitting errors to defeat the Spartans 25-18, 18-25, 28-26 and advance to Saturday’s 10 a.m. semifinal against defending state champion Wheaton Warrenville South.

With the victory, Providence (35-1) tied the school record for wins and earned the first boys volleyball trophy in school history. But repeating history is what Providence was trying to avoid Friday.

‘‘When we lost against St. Francis earlier this season, we got angry and started yelling at each other,’’ Providence middle hitter Eric Daliege said. ‘‘After that, we said we’d never stop playing as a team. When times are tough, you can’t turn on each other.

‘‘Today, nobody got angry and we all picked each other up.’’

Daliege, a 6-foot-7 senior, gave his team a pick-me-up after Glenbrook North (36-3) forced a third game behind Billy Vydra (13 kills) and Jordan Shamis (eight kills). Three Daliege kills gave Providence an early 5-2 lead, and a Daliege block and a Chase Pavlick kill later extended the lead to 19-14.

But Glenbrook North would not go quietly.

‘‘All four years flashed through my mind at that point,’’ Vydra said. ‘‘We worked so hard to win state. I thought, ‘We can’t quit now.’ We didn’t want any regrets. We wanted to put it all out there. I think we did.’’

Glenbrook North rallied to take 26-25 lead on Vydra’s ace off the tape. But Shamis’ tip on match point went around the antenna, and after a Hayden Grove kill, another hitting error by the Spartans sent the Celtics into Saturday's semifinals.

Daliege led Providence with 13 kills and two blocks, Dan Ruzich and Grove each had 11 kills and Jonathan Gustafson added 41 assists.

Tim Beford had 35 assists for Glenbrook North.

''We had our chances to win, we just couldn’t get it done,’’ Glenbrook North coach Chris Cooper said.