Volleyball: Joliet Catholic finishes strong to beat Lincoln-Way East

JOLIET – The girls volleyball teams from Joliet Catholic Academy and Lincoln-Way East didn’t need to wait for the recent release of postseason assignments to realize that their paths through the playoffs would be challenging.

That’s why both teams filled their schedules with as many tough matches as possible, and one of those was Monday’s nonconference contest between the Angels and Griffins.

After JCA pulled out a tight win in the opener, East responded with an easier victory and that set the table for a decisive third set. The hosts jumped out to an early advantage and led by as many as eight points before settling for a 25-23, 16-25, 25-22 victory.

The Angels (13-3), who will compete with many of the area’s Class 4A teams in the Waubonsie Valley Sectional, led 15-10 in the finale on kills from Emily Holbrook (13 kills) and Bella Ray (five kills). Consecutive kills from Holbrook stretched the lead to 22-14.

But the Griffins (8-4), who will be in the Andrew Sectional, used a block and kill from Haley Hart (eight kills, seven blocks) and two kills from Hanna Lesiak to close to within 24-22 before Sarah Nahas (15 assists) ended things with a kill.

“We’re looking at every opportunity that we get to play these quality teams to prepare us for the end of the season,” Angels coach Christine Scheibe said. “We play one of the toughest schedules, and we still have a lot of great matches to come on our tournament schedule.

“We took a step by playing a tough Game 1, not looking wonderful in Game 2 but then coming back and getting that early lead in Game 3 so that we could kind of dictate them game instead of them. And I had to do a little chess match with some of our players and I’m just proud of the girls who stepped in and played roles that they haven’t necessarily played.”

While encouraged by the way that his squad played during stretches of the match, Griffins coach Kris Fiore is still looking for less of the ups and downs that they displayed.

“The thing that we’ve been preaching is consistency,” Fiore said. “At times, we had control of the match and at other times, we struggled in serve-receive. We weren’t making them work since we were making a lot of errors and I think that was the key to the game.

“Give a lot of credit to Joliet Catholic since they were playing great defense back there, it wasn’t just us pounding balls out of bounds, they were forcing us to hit difficult shots. And they did a great job in the back row of digging, especially in game three. We’re getting better but we’re taking baby steps and would like to turn those into giant leaps pretty quickly.”

In the opener, East built a 16-11 lead on a seven-point service run from Kaleigh Ritter (10 digs), which featured half of her four aces and was aided by two blocks and a kill from Hart.

But the Angels moved in front for good at 21-20 on a kill by Holbrook and she added an ace to boost the lead to 23-20. The Griffins got to within a point on a block by Hart and a kill from Molly Hackett (11 kills) but Emily Wilson ended the drama with a kill.

“We started off a little slow but we really wanted this for ourselves,” said JCA senior Emmie Naal, who had 10 digs. “We knew that we had to push and that’s what we did since we fought through the whole game and got the job done. Last year we lost to them so it was good to win this year. We have to keep our competition up because we’re going to be playing teams like we have in the playoffs. We’re all really good friends and we know how to settle each other down if we get in a rut, and that’s really important.”

The Griffins took a 15-9 lead in the middle set and built on it from there. East’s Madison Corey (33 assists) and Emily Ripp (14 digs) and JCA’s Britney Drysch (12 assists), Sophie Krzysciak (five kills) and Macaire Kelley (10 digs) were among the other top performers.

“We knew that this team was going to be good,” JCA senior Meg Sliwa said. “We played really tough in game one and then got down in game two. But it was great to see how our team came out really hard in game three and picked up the energy and we all came together as a team very well. All of us are best friends on this team and that helps a lot because when things start to go south, we pick each other up and we’re there for each other. If we keep playing like we know how to, we’ll continue to have a great season.”