Tosa East Blocks Brookfield East, Moves on to Sectional Final

As Brookfield East star outside hitter Kyle Rohde soared up and slammed down another kill to clinch the first game for his team Tuesday night, it looked like it could be a long night for the Red Raiders.

Maybe Rohde’s early lightning bolts were just what the Raiders needed to get focused.

Tosa East (22-8) rallied back and took the final three games to win 20-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-22 in the sectional semi-final at Tosa East Tuesday night.

The top-seeded Red Raiders move on to play Shorewood at 7 p.m. Thursday at Brookfield East in the sectional finals. The Red Raiders will take on the second-seeded Greyhounds (16-8) for the first time this season.

East will be looking for its sixth straight state tournament berth. The Red Raiders won the state crown most recently in 2006.

Stopping Rohde, a two-time honorable mention all-state player, proved to be a key for the Red Raiders. They limited him to 20 kills after he managed an impressive 33 in a 3-1 loss when the teams met earlier this season.

“We know they set to him most of the time, so we made sure our blocking scheme had two or three blockers on him at all times,” Tosa East head coach John Simon said.

Along with Max Kilpin, junior middle hitter Mich Dillon and sophomore opposite hitter Ben Plaisted keyed in on Rohde and made life difficult for him after a dominant first game that seemed to catch the favored Red Raiders off guard.

“Our passing in game one was substandard,” said Simon. “We couldn’t get the ball to our middles, and that’s been our bread and butter all year long. They were hitting hard, they were hitting high, they were hitting off our hands and out of bounds.”

Simon looked to his team to take over after the shaky start. 

“That was a really great game for them. I told my team, eventually, if we start passing better we can get the ball to our middles and we can take control of the match and that’s what we did.”

Seniors Kilpin and Sam Ingrilli received that message loud and clear. The co-captains helped the Raiders get off to a 7-3 start in the second game that forced Brookfield East (10-13) to use an early time out.

Ingrilli repeatedly lofted sets up to the 6-foot-6 Kilpin, who had little problem pounding them over the net, out of the reach of Brookfield East. The connection between the two was evident.

“We’ve been playing together since freshman year,” said Kilpin. “And we played club together this last year and that was great. He’s a setter, and we really bonded. It helps so much because I really know all of his sets.”

Brookfield East jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the third game after an errant serve, a teammate collision and another miscommunication had the Raiders looking out of sorts. But Tosa East battled back and swung momentum with a big play.

Senior Zak Sylvester gave the crowd something to cheer about with a diving dig that Kilpin would eventually turn into a kill to put the Red Raiders ahead 14-12. As the crowd began to chant, “Here we go Raiders,” Tosa East took control with a 9-5 run before eventually winning the game 25-19. 

The Spartans would again challenge late in the fourth game, but it proved to be too little, too late. Down 24-18, Brookfield East rattled off four consecutive points, forcing Tosa East into a time out and more than a few worried looks on the faces of the Tosa East crowd. But upon returning from the time out, Brookfield East missed serve long and saw their season end.