Yorkville makes boys volleyball history with win over Joliet West, Minooka advances

MINOOKA — The young Yorkville boys volleyball program, seeded 24th in the 31-team Hinsdale South Sectional, got its first postseason win Saturday afternoon, defeating No. 9 seed Joliet West 25-16, 26-24 in the Minooka Regional.

It was the formidable front wall at the net that boosted the Foxes (11-21) to the historic win, anchored by 6-foot, 5-inch Micheal Harry and 6-4 Akongnwa Fongu-Atehnkeng. They consistently thwarted the Joliet West attack and frustrated the Tigers the entire match.

“We really worked hard in practice on our blocking,” Harry said. “We have blocking sessions that Coach [Sawyer Jackson] likes, but we don’t like that much. It is basically just jumping over and over for about an hour. He stressed to us that we must protect our back row. It was me and Akongnwa and all of the outsides, too. It was definitely a team effort.

“It feels great to get a win in a regional. I told the guys that, as a senior, I was here when the program started, and for us to be able to move on in a regional is a huge step.”

The Foxes took control of the first set early, racing out to an 11-5 lead, with Harry and Fongu-Atehnkeng setting the tone with two blocks each in the run. Joliet West (23-12) couldn’t get any closer than 16-11 the rest of the way as the Foxes cruised to the first-set win.

The second set was much tighter. Yorkville eased out to a 10-7 lead, but West rallied and eventually took an 18-16 lead on an ace by Dejon Jennings. With the score tied at 20, the Tigers got a kill by Mikey Meloy and back-to-back kills from Drew Johnson to take a 23-20 lead. Yorkville’s Seth Hill (7 kills) got a kill, and Harry and Donny Knoll combined for a block to make it 23-22. Joliet West got to set point on a Yorkville hitting error, but could not score again. The Foxes got a kill from Knoll and a West hitting error to tie it at 24. Chase Leonard delivered a killa for a 25-24 lead and the match ended on a West net violation.

“This team has had an unbelievable second half of the season,” Jackson said. “When the season started, we were hit hard by an illness and people were playing positions they don’t normally play. We had a low point with losses to a couple of teams we should have beat, and we were willing to try anything. We put Chase Leonard, who had been a middle his whole life, at setter, and it changed everything.

“We knew we would have to be strong against Drew Johnson. He is a very good player, and we wanted to make someone other than him beat us. Our defense at the net, especially the entire first set, was amazing. We put some work in at practice and we were ready to go today.”

Johnson led West with eight kills and Jennings had four. Nolan Fellowes led the Tigers with 14 assists.

“You can’t walk into the gym and think things are going to go how they did the last time you played a team,” West coach Tara Litwicki said. “In the postseason, everyone’s record is 0-0 and whoever shows up is going to win. We got outperformed today.

“We did have graduation at 11 this morning and had to leave that to get here for a 2 o’clock match. It was a busy day for our guys, but they knew what they had to do. We just didn’t get it done.”

In the day’s first quarterfinal, No. 18 Minooka got past No. 16 Glenbard South 25-17, 26-28, 25-20 to move on to play top seed Glenbard West on Tuesday.

Jayce Moore led the Indians (18-18) with 11 kills, while Liuke Kirin had seven kills and Connor Latta had six kills to go with 16 digs. Nicholas Boyce had 18 assists.

“Early in the season, we had injuries and we had guys playing mismatched positions,” Moore said. “Now, everyone is back where they should be and we are starting to click and gel. We have a lot of trust in everyone on the floor to do their job.

“When we are playing good defense and our serve receive is good, we are a pretty solid team. It’s fun to be playing on our home floor. It definitely makes us more confident, and we want to protect our court.”

The pivotal third set was tied at 17 before the Indians sandwiched kills by Latta and Boyce around a block by Boyce and Mason Smith. A kill by Moore made it 23-19 before Glenbard South’s Scott Williams got a kill to make it 23-20. The Indians got a point on a Raider hitting error and Boyce ended the match with an ace.

“These guys always seem to test the quality of their coach’s heart,” Minooka coach Mike Kargle said after the three-set thriller. “We had some mental lapses, but we were able to recover before they made a big run.

“We did a really good job of distributing the ball on offense, and our defense and serve receive was very good. We also served aggressively, which was good to see.”