Nothing hairy about Downers South win

Updated: May 24, 2011 8:54PM

Downers Grove South will hold its graduation on June 4, the same date as the state volleyball finals.

“Hopefully, we’ll miss it (graduation),” Downers South middle hitter Kevin O’Halloran said.

“They probably can’t go anyway with those haircuts,” Downers Grove South coach Tony Nevrly said.

Downers Grove South, sporting mohawks in the state tournament for the second year in a row, got seven kills and two aces from David Manganiello, five kills from Paris McFall and 19 assists from Bryan Ruggiero in a 25-10, 25-19 victory over Hinsdale Central Tuesday at the Benet Regional.

“Physically, we did what we were supposed to do,” Nevrly said. “We did a nice job serving, we passed well and we got our hands on a lot of balls. I am glad the second game was more of what we expected. We really had to battle.”

Downers South (31-5) used runs of 8-0 and 5-0 to build a 22-8 lead in Game 1, but Hinsdale Central pulled even at 13-13 in Game 2 on a hitting error and a kill by Andrew Regnery. However, an ace by Manganiello and a O’Halloran kill were part of a 7-2 run that forced a Hinsdale timeout.

“We did not play with as much energy as we could have,” O’Halloran said. “Hopefully, we will get a bigger crowd tomorrow and get pumped up.”

Andrew Regnery had six kills and an ace and 6-foot-5 freshman Ian Bunting, a midseason call-up, added five kills for Hinsdale Central (14-23).

“Keep your eye on (Bunting),” Hinsdale Central coach Len Serwat said. “We pulled him up midway through the season and he had 89 kills for us. He never played volleyball before. He’s a three-sport athlete (football, basketball). He’s just learning.”

Tuesday’s loss was a microcosm of the season for the Red Devils, who had trouble passing in Game 1 but kept Game 2 close by cleaning up some earlier mistakes.

“We have been up and down all season,” Serwat said. “It’s tough to put yourself in position to win a match like this when you have been inconsistent all season. We passed fairly well in Game 2 and that made a difference.”

Benet d. West Aurora 25-23, 25-10

Benet (23-12) rallied from an 18-12 deficit in Game 1 of Tuesday’s second regional semifinal to advance to Wednesday’s regional championship against Downers Grove South.

Bobby Wehrli led Benet with 10 kills, a block and an ace, Burke Hrovat added five kills and a block and Pat Dougherty had 16 assists, three aces and two kills for the Redwings, who trailed 6-0 and 22-20 in Game 1.

“It was crazy,” Wehrli said. “We came out real slow, they were serving well and we could not get the ball up. But we kept fighting. You have to give credit to our crowd. They gave us a lot of energy.”

Blocks by sophomore Sawyer Yeazel and Kevin Weithers gave Benet its first lead of Game 1 at 24-23, and Dougherty’s ace finished off the Blackhawks. Aces by Dougherty and Weithers helped Benet build an 11-2 lead in Game 2 and West Aurora (19-17) never recovered.

Binali Khurshidov led West Aurora with seven kills and a block, Joe Frommert added five kills and Joey Schwerdtfeger had 13 assists.

“It came down to Benet doing a better job scrambling,” West Aurora coach Tolis Koskinaris said. “We had a ballhandling error that I thought turned the match around when we had our strongest lineup against what I thought was their weakest.”

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