Chesterton (20-4) draws South Central (13-5) as quarterfinal opponent in Michigan City boys volleyball sectional, May 15

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton boys volleyball players and coaches learned during Sunday’s pairings show on IHSAAtv.org that they will open the Michigan City sectional vs. South Central (13-5) in a quarterfinal match May 15, 5:30 p.m.
Seven teams earned first-round byes and only Michigan City (12-12) and LaPorte (1-20) play in the first round. The winner of that match faces Kouts in a quarterfinal and the winner of that faces the winner of Chesterton/South Central. In the top of the bracket, the quarterfinal matches are Morgan Township (10-7) vs. Washington Township (13-2) and Westville (7-17) vs. winless Tri-Township.
The semifinal and championship matches will take place May 17. If Chesterton advances, it will play in the 12:30 p.m. semi. The championship match is at 6 p.m.
The Trojans (20-4, 10-2 in the DAC) open the final week of the regular season tonight at home vs. Michigan City, which is at a size disadvantage vs. Chesterton. The Trojans won their first meeting this season, 3-1.
Next, in what amounts to a sectional preview, except for the location, Chesterton visits South Central on Wednesday, then wraps up the regular season at home vs. Merrillville on Thursday.
Chesterton’s four losses have come against Lake Central twice, Bishop Noll in a best-of-three match, and last week at home against Andrean.
Chesterton appeared on the verge of locking it up in four sets when it went up 17-13 and 23-21, only to lose the set and the match 27-25, 15-25, 25-17, 24-26. 9-15.
“I thought we played really well. We just made a couple of more mistakes in certain situations,” Chesterton coach Kevin Labaj said. “We gave back a couple of runs that we had. We take back some of those mistakes and it should be us in four.”
Playing a team as strong as Andrean, Labaj said, will help the Trojans prepare for some of the top teams in the sectional.
“We learned where are highlights were and where we struggle,” he said. “We learned what we have to fix to be able to beat the better competition we’ll face at sectionals.”