Glenbard West: Six consecutive final fours

By Bobby Narang –
Glenbard West High School boys volleyball head coach Christine Giunta-Mayer was overcome with emotion Saturday.

After the Hilltoppers suffered a 25-21, 25-23 defeat to Marist in the State championship game at Hoffman Estates, Giunta-Mayer expressed her admiration for her players.

Seven years ago, the Hilltoppers, 38-4, set a standard for the program by reaching the State tournament for the first time. Now, after three straight State championships and a third-place finish last season, the Hilltoppers are considered one of the top programs in the State.

“We have never been second,” Giunta-Mayer said. “Second is not fun…. But we worked hard for this moment. You don’t work for second place, but somebody’s got to win, somebody’s got to lose. That’s the nature of the beast.

“We worked so hard. I feel I wanted to win this for the seniors so bad. This whole team put in the extra work. We knew we had to work a little bit harder this year. We knew we didn’t have the size, but we had the athleticism and speed, and we knew we had character kids.”

The Hilltoppers were led by Ryan Swartz’s 10 kills and 13 digs and Ben Harrington tallied 12 kills and eight digs in the championship game.

Giunta-Mayer said her players gave consistent effort all season, which bodes well for next season with Harrington among the leading returnees.

“I’m so proud of this team,” she said. “My juniors gave these seniors everything they could…I have eight seniors that have given me blood, sweat, and tears for four years. But what I loved about my seniors is they were role models for my juniors. The juniors are going to come back. This is our sixth consecutive final four. It’s quite an accomplishment. We battled our way. It was a great season.”

• Montini in State baseball tournament

Montini Catholic needed to score five runs in the seventh inning to pull out a victory over St. Patrick in the Class 3A St. Patrick Sectional semifinal Wednesday, May 29.

Since then, the Broncos have been on cruise control and defeated Ridgewood, 11-1, in the sectional championship game and beat Grayslake Central, 10-0, in the Naperville North Central College Super-sectional to advance to the State tournament for the first time since 2005.

“It’s been an up and down season, but for about the last two weeks, we’ve been steady on the incline, listening to the coach, and trusting the process,” Montini’s Ryan Nelson said.

The Broncos will play Dixon Friday at noon at the Route 66 Stadium in Joliet in the second semifinal. St. Laurence and Waterloo will play in the 10 a.m. semifinal.

In Class 4A super-sectional games Monday, St. Charles North defeated Plainfield Central, 8-1, in Crestwood and Hampshire defeated Oak Park-River Forest, 4-0, in Schaumburg.

St. Charles North will play St. Rita at 3 p.m. Friday in Joliet and Hampshire will play Edwardsville at 5 p.m.. Championship and third place games will be Saturday in both 3A and 4A.