Romeoville Volleyball Falls in Rubber Game

There is perhaps no variable in high school athletics that guarantees better competition than evenly matched talent. Tuesday evening at Plainfield East, the Romeoville boys volleyball team and the host Bengals had a sense of going the distance.

Unfortunately for the Spartans, a 9-point deficit could not be overcome in the third game as the Bengals captured their first Southwest Suburban Conference match of the year with their 26-24, 20-25, 25-21 victory.

“If we don’t dig ourselves that big hole (early in the third game), we’re fine,” said Romeoville coach Debra Fehrenbacher. “I don’t want to belittle (my players), but it was the mistakes that cost us.”

Plainfield East (9-8, 1-4) raced out to a 17-8 lead in the decisive game, capped by an AJ Rodriquez ace.

But the Spartans  (10-7, 3-2) would not go quietly. Romeoville went on an 8-1 spurt to cut the Bengals’ lead to two at 18-16. Senior outside middle George Edgar, who had a match-high 10 kills, had two winners during the Spartans’ run that also included a spectacular block-kill by Damitri Taylor.

Plainfield East, though, had the final response, exploiting a series of hitting errors to reach match point with a 5-point cushion. Nick Oderio and Deonte Scroggins staved off two match points with kills for Romeoville, but a net violation on the ensuing point typified the Spartans’ unforced errors.

“It was a lack of communication on our errors,” said Scroggins, the Spartans’ athletic senior outside-middle who had four kills on the evening. “If we eliminate our mistakes, we’ll be a good team.”

Romeoville had a chance to win in two straight. Senior libero Steven Turco had three aces in a four-point stretch to negate an early first-game three-point deficit, and the Spartans battled the Bengals throughout.

Neither team led by more than 3 points in the opening game, and Edgar had a kill to snap the penultimate of eight ties over the final combined 32 points. But with game in the balance, Plainfield East scored the final 3 points of the tense opener to win 26-24.

“We knew after the first game that we could push them to three (games),” said Oderio.

Romeoville forced a rubber game with its second-game 25-20 triumph. Plainfield East trailed by 5 on four separate occasions and actually drew to within a point at 20-19.

John Jelic had a kill to double the Spartans’ edge, and Oderio and Edgar put Romeoville over the top with a kill and game-ending ace, respectively.

“It was a really hard-fought match,” said Plainfield East coach Daniel Vergo. “We’re used to going three games.”

Wayne Fitts (14) and Jelic (10) combined for 24 assists to orchestrate the Spartans’ offensive attack.