The championship match of Saturday’s Glenbard East 2026 Springfest boys volleyball invitational produced an instant classic.
Glenbard West rallied back after losing the first set, then overcame a 13-5 deficit in the third set to score a 23-25, 25-19, 25-22 title game victory over the host Rams.
The matchup featured two of the top programs in Illinois.
“Just relief,” Carter Long of the Hilltoppers said after the final kill from teammate Ian Hoster hit the floor.
“This game was crazy, but I never doubted my teammates,” Long added. “I trusted everyone every second, so I knew we could get it done. Everyone was gassed, long day, the games weren’t easy for anybody. But in the championship game, everybody was fired up. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Glenbard West (10-0) won all five of its matches in the tournament.
Andrew Fanella led the way for the Hilltoppers in the contest versus the Rams with 20 assists, six digs, and two aces. Teammate Lukas Wallin had 17 kills and six blocks, Hoster added 10 kills, while Otis Yahn earned seven kills, two blocks and four digs.
“We talk about it every day in practice,” Hilltoppers coach Christine Giunta-Mayer said of the big Glenbard West third set comeback. “It’s never over. Second effort, you’ve got to put in second effort.
“And you’ve got to want to play defense, and we did. I feel like we knew we were not tired, our shots were still going. We still had enough energy to do it, (even) after five games.”
It was a successful invite for Glenbard East despite falling just short in the championship game.
“We held our seed, we were a two seed coming,” Rams coach Bradley Cardott said. “A lot of kids stepped up. A lot we can learn from in the last match, and that was a relentless match between both games.”
West Aurora won third place with a three-set win over Lake Park.
“Today is a day that I thought we played really well,” Richard Jimenez of the Blackhawks said. “Everybody doing their job, our defense was good, and we had the energy. If we keep that up this season, we’re going to go far.”
West Aurora coach Grant Marlowe said Liam Norris led his team in kills on Saturday against the Lancers with 15. Leo Sanchez got seven kills, while Jimenez had 31 assists.
“Just happy,” West Aurora’s Jesus Galvan said after scoring the final match point for his team against the Lancers. “It was defense (that carried the day) for us today.”
St. Francis and Conant advanced to the consolation bracket in the 16-team tourney. They each lost their respective semifinal games, then faced each other in the seventh-place match, in which the Spartans outlasted the Cougars in three games.
“This tournament always has some really good teams,” Cougars coach Drewann Pancratz said.
“We played well. It’s early in the year, but we hope this carries over to our conference season.
“I thought our middle, Jaiden Thorney, had a great tourney, and our libero, Gavin Kovaka, played very well. We have a lot of guys who stepped up at different times.”
https://www.dailyherald.com/20260411/boys-volleyball/boys-volleyball-glenbard-west-rallies-in-third-set-tops-host-glenbard-east-in-championship-match/