The Lockport Township boys volleyball team has arrived.
The Porters pulled out a thrilling 27-25, 25-21 victory over Edwardsville in the title match of the Minooka Sectional on Tuesday evening in Channahon. It was their 12th win in a row and their first sectional championship in their 30 seasons as a program.
Lockport will face a familiar foe Lincoln-Way East, a 26-24, 26-24 winner over host Marist in its sectional final, at 10 a.m. Friday in the opening state quarterfinal match at Glenbard West.
“It feels great,” Lockport senior outside hitter Matt Arens said. “It’s our first time at state, and we’re honored to get to this point.”
Arens had 11 kills to lead the way from his outside hitting position. But he had plenty of help from fellow seniors Carter Steffgen, with seven kills from the outside, Josh Beaumont, with four kills and a block from the middle, and Bryan Maida, with 14 digs at libero. As he has all season, freshman setter Evan Dziadkowiec came through with 22 assists and added eight digs.
Nick Mraz, who is in his eighth season as Porters coach, knew this team could be the one that broke through.
“It feels good and is definitely a weight off the shoulders,” Mraz said. “When I came in it was a collective decision by the coaches that we could be an elite program. We’ve had some other nice teams in the past but the determination of this group is a little different.”
That showed in the opening set, which featured 14 ties and six lead changes. Edwardsville (13-2) led, 21-18, after a block by junior middle hitter Miles Bell (three kills, five blocks). The Porters tied it at 22 but then made a pair of errors, giving the Tigers two set points.
Then a kill by Beaumont, a block by Arens and a long hit put Lockport ahead by a point. Senior outside hitter Kaden Chiapelli (three kills) answered for the Tigers but an Arens kill and a return into the net ended the opener.
“I just thought I had to put the ball down,” Beaumont said of his kill in the key moment. “It’s exciting. I thought at the beginning of the season that we could be here. We just had to put in the work. It’s great that we got coach Mraz his first sectional championship.”
Getting that first set was huge, especially since the Porters overcame four service errors and four net violations.
“The first set was really shaky,” Arens said. “But [in a time out down 24-22] we were in the huddle, we were able to calm down and take it away.”
Mraz agreed.
“We needed that play,” he said. “Matt Arens got a big block to tie it and we went from there. This is just a great group of guys and a good feeling.”
The Tigers, who were led by six kills from junior outside hitter Jacob Geisen, jumped out to leads of 5-0 and 6-1 in the second set.
Trialing 8-5, senior opposite side hitter Owen Knezevich had a kill to start a 6-0 run and Lockport never trailed again. There were three more ties, the last one at 13-13. Then Arens annihilated a trio of kills as the Porters went on a 6-0 run to pull away. Edwardsville never got closer than three points the rest of the way.
Steffgen had had the match-winning kill. But afterward, he wasn’t satisfied.
“Honestly, it feels like we didn’t accomplish much yet,” he said. “Our sophomore year we knew we had something special. Now I’m looking forward to playing East [the Griffins defeated Lockport, 25-14, 25-23, on May 6 in the SouthWest Suburban Conference matchup] and the rest of the state series.”