Despite bloody nose, Joliet West’s Mikey Meloy leads sweep over Bolingbrook

JOLIET – Midway through the second set Tuesday, Joliet West‘s Mikey Meloy had to go to the bench due to a bloody nose suffered during a point against Bolingbrook.

The Tigers led 9-7 when Meloy left and held a 16-11 lead when he returned. The Raiders were trying to rally for a comeback to force a third set, but Meloy took over late.

He delivered a kill to put his team ahead 21-17. Bolingbrook pulled to within 21-19, but the Tigers got ahead 23-19 on a kill by Davide Giambagli and a Raiders hitting error. Meloy then delivered kills on the final two points to put the finishing touches on a 28-26, 25-19 win.

The triumph moved the Tigers to 23-10 overall and 9-1 in the Southwest Prairie Conference. They finish the conference schedule Thursday at Oswego, which leads the conference with a 9-0 league mark.

“It was kind of friendly fire,” Meloy said about the nose that was bloodied during a joust at the net. “[Bolingbrook’s] Tavares Campbell got me by accident. He and I play club together. I didn’t get an apology from him, but I forgive him anyway.

“I have never done this before in my life, but after we lost three or four points in a row when I was out, I told Coach [Tara Litwicki] that I was ready to go back in. I felt during warmups like I was going to have the game of my life, and I wanted to be on the court.”

Meloy finished with a team-high 11 kills, while Drew Johnson had nine, Dejon Jennings had six, and Giambagli and Mason Simpson contributed three each. Nolan Fellowes had 26 assists, four digs and two aces, while AK Ramos had a team-high eight digs.

“When Mikey is on, he’s outstanding,” Litwicki said. “We could tell during warmups that he was on, and Nolan Fellowes made some great decisions on who to get the ball to.

“I am very proud of these guys. I always tell them that our practices are harder than our games, and we practiced hard yesterday after losing to Lincoln-Way East and Lyons over the weekend. We regrouped at practice and played well. We knew that if we served aggressively, we could get them out of system, and it worked well.”

The Tigers jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first set, getting a kill and a block from Simpson and an ace from Fellowes in the stretch. They maintained the lead throughout and led 23-18 when Bolingbrook (26-7, 8-2) called timeout.

The Raiders scored the next six points, getting two kills from Edison Ah-Yo (9 kills) and two aces from Trevor Wardlow (9 kills) to take a 24-23 lead and were serving for set point.

Joliet West did not allow that final point.

Johnson delivered a kill, and Jennings followed with a block for a 25-24 West lead. Ah-Yo sandwiched a pair of kills around a kill by Johnson to tie it at 26 before the Tigers got a point on a hitting error, and Meloy ended it with a kill.

“We really wanted this one,” Meloy said. “We were unbeaten on our own floor last year, except for losing to these guys, once in the regional. They were the only team to beat us on our home floor, so this was a big revenge game for us.

“One of my favorite parts of the match was when I looked over at their blockers, and I heard them say, ‘No. 10 [Meloy’s number] is prime.’ I told Nolan to get me the ball and I would score the point, and that’s what happened.”