While church league basketball may take precedence at LT and the surrounding western suburbs, the lesser known synagogue league volleyball begins its postseason next week with the only two teams taking the forefront, the Notorious D.I.G. of Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard and Kiss My Ace of B’nai Abraham Zion in Oak Park.

“We really just need to keep on doing what we’re doing,” captain of Notorious D.I.G. Zachary Goldstein said. “We have really gotten to know this team since they’re the only one we play so we know all their secret weapons and what to expect.”

Being the only two synagogues within a 10 mile radius of LT, it was hard to keep the league going, but in order to feel more accepted in the primarily Christian Wsestern suburbs, the league was created, Kiss My Ace captain Michelle Rosenbaum said.

“The teams are coed and we practice twice a week,” Rosenbaum said. “There’s not a lot of us but we have a good time and always end practice with bagels.”

The playoffs are set up where each match is best of five, and they will play seven matches, so whichever team has four victories in the end wins the highly competitive league.

“I’m a bit worried for the playoffs to be quite honest,” regular season MVP and star player of D.I.G. Mandy Cohn said. “They have Spender Levinston, who is already committed to play at Hebrew University in Jerusalem next year for college, so that makes me nervous. I think we can take him, we just need to really bring our A-game.”

The championship, however, does not mean the end of the season, Goldstein said. The winning team will advance to a state-wide tournament held at one of the Jewish Community Centers (JCC) in Chicago. There, they could face teams like Orville Ready-Blockers out of Skokie or Setsy and We Know It out of Deerfield, both of which are one seeds in their respective tournaments.

“Those Northshore teams terrify me,” Cohn said. “These leagues are so much more popular up there based sheerly on the percent of the Jewish population they have. The worst of them are the Orthodox teams. They take no days off and are nationally ranked each and every year. If we make it that far I will be so proud of my team but we are no match to them if we ever end up playing them.”

The first match of the best of seven series begins this Saturday, May 27 at 7 p.m. at Etz Chaim’s home court in Lombard. Bagels and Manischewitz grape juice will be provided to all those who attend.