Even with some key members of the team injured, the Lincoln-Way East volleyball team had little trouble dispatching SouthWest Suburban Conference rival Bradley-Bourbonnais on Tuesday. The Griffins (7-5, 1-0) cruised to a 25-15, 25-21 win to open conference play.

Indiana University recruit Alaina Pollard and fellow outside hitter Chloe Prainito both missed the game due to injuries, as did setter Brooklyn Ritter. Even with three big members of the team sidelined, the Griffins displayed a next-player-up mentality.

Chief among the players that stepped to the forefront was sophomore Kolby Ross, who led the club with 12 kills. Ross had six kills in each set. She had four and teammate Maddie Hellrung had three kills and an ace as the Griffins built a 17-8 lead in the first set. The lead reached 20-10 on a kill by Ross before Bradley-Bourbonnais (7-5, 0-1) got a kill each from Olivia Woolman and Hannah Wojnowski and a Lincoln-Way East hitting error to pull to within 21-13. The Boilermakers pulled to within 22-15 on a kill by Paige Curtis before Lincoln-Way East’s Macie Campbell closed out the set with a kill and back-to-back aces.

“I haven’t been nervous this year, just excited,” Ross said. “I played on the varsity last year as a freshman, and I was nervous a lot last year. We work on hitting a lot in practice and that helps both the hitters and the blockers. We did a real good job on defense at the net tonight.

“When I was warming up, I felt pretty good and wanted to try some things out, so I told the setters what I wanted and they gave me the passes. Once we get fully healthy, we are going to be a problem.”

Both Lincoln-Way East coach Sean Burns and Bradley-Bourbonnais coach Leigh Reiniche got all of their players in the game in the second set. The Griffins moved out to an 18-9 lead before Bradley-Bourbonnais had its best stretch of the night. Wojnowski started the streak with a kill, then Woolman sandwiched a pair of aces around a kill by Harper Yuska before two Griffin hitting errors brought the Boilers to within 18-15. They fended off match point twice, getting kills by Harper Tollefson and Woolman to pull to within 24-21 before Hellrung closed it out with a kill for East.

Maggie Simon had 13 assists to lead Lincoln-Way East, while Hellrung added six kills and Morgan Sazama had three. Wojnowski and Yuska had four kills each to lead Bradley-Bourbonnais.

“We had three sophomores play for us tonight,” Burns said. “It’s nice to see these players getting valuable experience. Once Alaina and Chloe come back, we are going to have a lot of hitters with experience.

“All-around, we played a very solid match. We got a lot of touches on their attacks at the net, we passed well, our setters did a good job and so did our hitters. I though Morgan Sazama did great in the middle tonight.”

Reiniche said that the youthful Boilermakers are still a work in progress.

“We have six sophomores, three juniors and four seniors,” she said. “We are moving the girls around and figuring out what each player does best and how they work with each other. Doing that, we are still 7-5.

“We got all 13 players in tonight, which was good to see. We need that game experience. We also need to get some more hands up at the net to slow down the attacks.”