Balanced attack helps Neuqua volleyball win sectional semi

Updated: May 27, 2011 11:50PM

On Friday, Neuqua Valley’s go-to guy Jon Storm got a lot of help from his friends.

With Minooka keying on Storm, Conner Dart and Jake Gerald had just the openings they needed to repeatedly come up with big kills to lead the Wildcats to a 25-17, 25-22 win over Minooka in the semifinals of the Belleville West Sectional. The Wildcats are scheduled for a long road trip to Belleville West for the sectional final on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The Indians (27-6) knocked the Wildcats (31-6) out of the tournament in the sectional semifinals last year.

“Conner and Jake were on fire today,” said Storm. “Minooka’s middle was cheating over on me and that left holes for Jake and he was having a field day out there. Conner hit over every block and he’s all of 5-foot-10. Incredible.”

Dart led the Wildcats with 11 kills, Storm finished with nine and Gerald put down seven on the right-side to give the Wildcats the balanced attack they strive for in every match

“It’s huge for us when Jake and Conner get the kills,” said Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza. “Add them to Storm and Tanner McKeown across the front and who are you going to block? It would have been nice to run our middles a little more, but I’m really happy with the way we played tonight.”

The Indians, who Neuqua had beaten earlier in the season, proved a formidable opponent in the match that was held at Lockport Township.

They led 10-9 in Game 1 before Neuqua went on a six-point run that featured a pair of aces by Dart.

Those aces were indicative of the Wildcats’ strong serving throughout the match, that either produced aces or serves that were hard for the Indians to handle.

“We were mixing up the serves and that seemed to work pretty well,” Storm said. “We were ripping a jump-serve deep and then we would go short with a soft floater. They didn’t react fast enough and we were able to get some easy points. “

“We always work on serving in practice,” said setter Alex Blackwell. “It was really on tonight. We weren’t missing.”

The six-point run gave the Wildcats the cushion they needed and they maintained it for the rest of the Game 1.

Game 2 was close all the way. In fact the biggest lead was held by Minooka at 15-11 and the Indians were a point ahead as late as 21-20.

And that’s when Storm, the go-to guy, went to work scoring on dramatic kills to secure three of the Wildcats’ last five points.

“I hand’t done much until the end,” Storm said. “I was finally able to hit around the block.”

McKeown had the kill to end the match.

Blackwell distributed 24 assists and Zach Gilligan came up with 10 digs for the Wildcats.

Rick Bishop led the Indians with five kills and a block, and Nick Vertin had four kills and led the team in digs with six.

“Neuqua Valley really played a wonderful match,” said Minooka coach Janel Grzetich. “But I’m very proud of the way our kids battled.”

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