Libertyville’s Chase Bonder, left, and Oliver Sikora react late in a Warren Sectional semifinal against Antioch on Saturday, May 28, 2022. Libertyville won 20-25, 25-14, 25-20. (Rob Dicker / News-Sun)

Libertyville senior Chase Bonder isn’t a morning person, but he sure played the part during a 9 a.m. clash with Antioch in a Warren Sectional semifinal on Saturday.

“I’m a night owl,” Bonder said. “I usually stay up pretty late, but last night I went to bed way earlier than a normal school night. A cold shower in the morning cures everything.”

Cold showers and hot play. Bonder sounded the alarm with a physical presence at the net as the all-conference middle hitter recorded three kills and six blocks in fourth-seeded Libertyville’s 20-25, 25-14, 25-20 win against seventh-seeded Antioch.

Libertyville’s Oliver Sikora (4) and Chase Bonder (25) go up to block during a Warren Sectional semifinal against Antioch on Saturday, May 28, 2022. (Rob Dicker / News-Sun)

“We were the harder-swinging team for sure,” said Bonder, who also is a basketball standout. “Antioch had a lot of kills tipping at first. But once we adjusted, our hard hitters really started to show. Credit to Antioch for the first set, but that was not our best volleyball. Once we eliminated our errors, the whole game flipped the switch.”

Patrick Akers popped off a few highlight-reel attacks and finished with 11 kills and eight digs for Libertyville (21-12), which will play top-seeded Rockton Hononegah (26-0) in the sectional final at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a trip to the state quarterfinals on the line. Hononegah won 25-15, 25-21 against second-seeded Vernon Hills (29-9) in the other semifinal.

“Akers is the backbone of our team,” Bonder said. “He’s always happy and positive on the court, which we need — especially after that first set.”

Oliver Sikora had six kills for the Wildcats, and Aleks Slesers added four, each showing a big swing to end rallies with a punctuation mark.

Gavin Nelson had nine kills and nine digs to pace Antioch (16-16). Matthew Schultz added six kills, and Ethan Losinger had 13 digs.

Antioch’s Gavin Nelson, center, winds up to spike the ball during a Warren Sectional semifinal against Libertyville on Saturday, May 28, 2022. (Rob Dicker / News-Sun)

The Sequoits were coming off the program’s first regional title and had won 12 of their past 15 matches but couldn’t quite counter Bonder, Akers and the physicality of Libertyville.

“We’ve been on an awesome run,” Antioch coach Jamie Atkinson said. “We’ve had some nice upsets. Going into the regional seeding, we had six wins. We came in as the seven seed and beat the 10, beat the three and beat the two.

“We were so close but got lost in serve-receive, and it fell apart. The bright side is we’re a young team, and we’re excited to build on this.”

Libertyville led 19-17 in the opening set after a kill by Akers, but juniors Gavin Nelson and Dylan Niznik rallied Antioch (16-16) with some scrappy defense. The Sequoits closed the set by scoring six unanswered points.

Antioch’s Dylan Niznik (5) attempts to block a hit by Libertyville’s Patrick Akers (16) during their Warren Sectional semifinal on Saturday, May 28, 2022. (Rob Dicker / News-Sun)

But whenever Libertyville needed a point, setters Luis Correa (17 assists) and Ethan Lindberg (16 assists) found Akers for a big kill.

“Anywhere on the court, he’s definitely our terminator,” Libertyville coach Jenny Smith said of Akers. “He’s been that way all season. And Antioch is very deceiving. They play good defense and make it hard to run points on them.”

Libertyville won decisively in the second set and led wire to wire in the third, but it wasn’t always easy. Nelson put some pressure on the Wildcats with a kill to cut their lead to 18-16 before they started to pull away after an ace by Akers and solid back-row play by Reece Wiatrowski, who had 10 digs.

“We’ve had the talent and the athleticism the entire time,” Akers said. “But we’ve just been a hot-and-cold team. We’ve shown over and over again we can play at a high level.

“We were a little timid at first. Now we’re tied for the furthest any Libertyville boys volleyball team has been. We’re amped. Let’s go out swinging. Even if we lose, let’s lose in a good way and get after it.”