Nathan Kramer doesn’t have to be told how big a Brother Rice-Marist game is in any sport.
But a volleyball match with a trip to the state quarterfinals on the line? The senior outside hitter was ready for it since beating St. Rita in Saturday’s sectional semifinal.
“That’s all I could think about for three days in a row,” he said of a rematch with Marist. “I wanted to win so bad. I wasn’t even thinking about state. I was just thinking about this.
“It wasn’t about state — it was about the rivalry.”
Well, as a reward, Kramer came through Tuesday night with eight kills as the host Crusaders defeated Marist 25-22, 27-25 in the Brother Rice Sectional championship match.
Brendan McCarthy added six kills and three blocks and Luke Dwyer had 22 assists for Brother Rice (32-7), which will take on Lyons (33-6) at 2 p.m. Friday in the state quarterfinals at Hoffman Estates.
For Marist (35-4), Marty Canavan closed out his career with eight kills. Earlier in the day, he was named to Volleyballmag.com‘s Fab 50, a list of top seniors in the nation. Nathen Toth tallied six kills and Devlin Biggs had five.
Kramer, meanwhile, has been playing in recent weeks with an injured right thumb. He’s had it taped up during the postseason, but it hasn’t slowed him down.
“I messed it up a couple of weeks ago, but it’s not bad,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt, but it’s a comfort thing and I don’t want to jam it again.”
“When we needed a big point,” Dwyer said of Kramer, “he came up big.”
It didn’t get much bigger than the monster kill Kramer pounded in the second game to give the Crusaders a 26-25 lead after they came back from a 24-23 deficit.
The two teams played May 15 at Brother Rice, with the Crusaders pulling off a 27-25, 16-25, 25-22 victory over the RedHawks, who were ranked No. 6 in the nation.
This time, the Crusader Crazies — staples at basketball games — took their place in the stands to try to make it uncomfortable for Marist.
“It’s first time we had a student section at a volleyball game,” Dwyer said. “I felt that’s what helped us bring so much energy to the game.”
The RedHawks committed 12 serving errors, including seven in the second game.
“We definitely shot ourselves in the foot,” Marist coach Jordan Vidovic said. “That was too many mistakes for a game like this.
“We were playing an in-between game on the serves where we didn’t want to be overly aggressive and tried to be safe.”
The RedHawks finished 0-2 against Brother Rice and 0-2 against defending champion Glenbard West this season while going 35-0 against the rest of a strong schedule.
Brother Rice won its seventh sectional title and first since 2017, when the Crusaders took fourth in the state.
This is retiring coach Dan Dwyer’s last season. Luke, his youngest son, remembers watching the 2017 team as a grade school student.
“When they lost, I was crying my eyes out,” said Luke, an Aurora University recruit.
Brother Rice is 0-2 against Lyons this season but didn’t have its full team either match.
The Crusaders opened the season finding success with their middle hitters. That helped create openings for the 6-foot-3 Kramer, a Santa Monica recruit.
“Nathan Kramer is a Division I outside if he wants to be,” Dan Dwyer said. “It’s all a matter of his attitude and mental approach to the game.
“He’s physically a top-5 player in the state. He has incredible jumping ability. He is strong. His sky is limitless.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.