Wheaton North’s volleyball team needed no wake-up call, although that 10-point deficit in the first set might have qualified as one.

The Falcons were playing Wheaton-Warrenville South, after all, looking to avenge a decisive loss to their rival from earlier in the season, with a state berth at stake no less. Moreover, the Falcons were more than aware of the “generational overlap,” as coach John Noe IV called it.

Tom Hubner coached Wheaton North to back-to-back state appearances in 1995 and 1996, before going on to have a long and successful coaching career at Addison Trail. Thirty years later, Hubner sat in the Larkin stands and watched his son Owen help the Falcons outlast Wheaton-Warrenville South 27-25, 24-26, 25-21 in the Larkin Sectional final in Elgin.

Tuesday night’s win earned the Falcons their first state berth since 2000. Wheaton North (35-5) will play Libertyville (31-3) at 11:30 a.m. Friday in a state quarterfinal at Bolingbrook High School.

“It’s super awesome to be out here and win these games,“ Owen Hubner, a junior setter, said after delivering 16 assists in the Falcons’ marathon match. ”It’s a great time.”

Hubner’s Uncle Matt played volleyball for the Wheaton North team that placed second in the state in 1996, Noe said. Trey Hubner set for Noe last year.

“We’re a big volleyball family,” Owen Hubner said. “The whole family came out. It’s awesome.”

“To bring that legacy back is pretty cool for him,” Falcons senior outside hitter Aidan Syswerda said of his teammate.

Syswerda ended the season for Wheaton-Warrenville South (33-4) with his 23rd kill of the night. It capped a third set that, like the first two, was back and forth with each team showcasing an ample amount of power arms.

Peter Dey and Alex Scribner added six kills each for the Falcons, while Will Biagini and Jake Johnson had six and four blocks, respectively.

“I think we just had a lot of firepower against South and started to wear them down, especially in the third set,” Syswerda said. “Then we were just able to go on runs and out-fought them at the end. South’s a great team, but I’m really proud of how we finished.”

The Tigers beat the visiting Falcons 28-26, 25-12 when the teams met April 28 in DuKane Conference action. Wheaton-Warrenville South looked like it might dominate again Tuesday night after jumping out to a 14-4 lead in the opening set.

Noe credited his 6-foot-8 middle blocker, Scribner, for a three-point service run, which put the Falcons up 22-19, for helping spark his team.

“It was probably our first run of the set that woke up our block and woke up our our back-row defense a little bit,” Noe said. “That’s really what got the momentum going, and we were just able to keep rolling from there.”

The Tigers rallied back in the opening set to take a 25-24 lead, but the 6-6 Syswerda, who’s a Lewis University commit, put down three straight kills to end it.

“It was a little hard coming off that,” Wheaton-Warrenville South senior outside hitter Simon Bratt said of the Tigers squandering the 14-4 lead. “They’re a good team.”

Bratt did all he could to keep the Tigers’ season alive. He finished with 19 kills, including six in the second set. Freshman outside hitter Logan Thornton added eight kills in the loss.

Wheaton North built an 11-5 lead in the third set on a kill by the 6-5 Dey. Bratt’s final kill pulled his team to within 22-20, but the Tigers immediately served the ball long, and Johnson’s kill had the Falcons up 24-20.

“They studied up really well,” Bratt said. “They did some things that they didn’t do before [in the first match], sided-out. It could have gone either way.”

Redemption was on the Falcons’ mind after their regular-season loss to the Tigers.

“We were really frustrated,” Syswerda said. “They’re our rival. We always want to beat South, so to lose by that margin [the first time] really motivated us. We knew we’d match up and eventually win.”

Joey Bruzdzinski lofted 20 assists for Wheaton North, while libero Tomas Manrique had eight digs.

“It’s just the team chemistry,” Hubner said. “We wanted this game more than anything. We came in every day this week saying, ‘We got to go, we got to work, and we got to beat this team.’ ”

Wheaton North’s win was its 14th straight. The Falcons’ victory over the Tigers was only the second time during that stretch that they needed three sets to prevail.

“We tried to minimize [Wheaton-Warrenville South’s] impact players while maximizing ours, and we’re blessed to have a very talented team across the net and across the back row this year,” Noe said. “We just practice with the mindset of ‘Everybody’s got to contribute tonight, everybody’s got to work. It can’t be the mindset that someone else is going to bail you out. You’ve got to do your responsibility,’ and I felt that we did that.”