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FRANKFORT – Despite allowing 11 aces to Joliet West servers, the Minooka volleyball team defeated the Tigers, 25-23, 19-25, 25-19, in a Class 4A Lincoln-Way North Sectional semifinal Tuesday night.
Because of the win, the Indians – the No. 6 seed in the sectional – will play top-seeded Lincoln-Way North for the title at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“It took us a while to get ourselves back in system.” Minooka coach Carrie Prosek said. “But the first game, we took off with it. But then they really swooped in on those players. Once they did, we worked through it. Basically, that’s what they did. We made our errors in serve-receive.”
The Indians (28-10) had strong offensive production from the outside. Senior Ginger Perinar recorded 10 kills, while sophomore Alli Papesh had nine. Junior setter Brooklyn Bachmann collected 26 assists.
Despite being set a limited amount of times because of West’s aggressive serving, the middles and right side put away the ball when they were set.
Junior Kamryn Johnson had five kills, sophomore Holly Bonde four and both hit .500. Senior middle Emily Hise scored three kills, including one over-pass kill she bounced a 10-foot line to make the score 5-1 in favor of the Indians and started them on a hot streak.
It looked as if Minooka was going to dominate the entire match at the beginning. Joliet West (30-7) was playing timidly, and before the Tigers knew it, Minooka was up, 16-7.
Minooka also played strong defense and dug several balls that could have been kills for West. Senior libero Maddie Alessio led with 14 digs. Perinar had 12, Bachmann 10 and junior defensive specialist Mattie Ziech nine.
Although it was expected Joliet West would serve the ball aggressively – Nicole Ochs, Shannon Doran and Lauren Stefanski served almost two aces a match – serve-receive is the one area Minooka will focus on going into Thursday, which will be one of the Indians’ toughest matches of the year.
Similar to Joliet West, Lincoln-Way North will be playing its heart out. The Phoenix are in their last season as a school, but Minooka will look to spoil their hopes of a sectional title.
“It wasn’t our best game of volleyball, but I’m really happy we pulled it off,” Perinar said. “We came together as a team. Not everything was clicking. Not everything was working, but I’m happy we were able to come together and get that win. A win is a win.”