The Plainfield South and Joliet Central volleyball teams have had eerily similar seasons thus far.

The Steelmen entered Thursday night’s contest a match over .500, while the Cougars came in a match under .500.

When the final point was scored, they both had the same record.

Plainfield South was excellent in the first set and resilient in the second to earn a 25-15, 25-18 road win and move to 5-5 on the year.

Plainfield South was strong early on. After pulling ahead 6-3 and letting Central back within 8-7, the Cougars went on a 6-1 run to take a commanding advantage.

Things didn’t get much better from there for Joliet Central. While the Steelmen managed to match points for a stretch, they couldn’t close the deficit beyond six, losing 25-15.

Set two was a bit more interesting. After the Cougars jumped out to an 8-3 lead, the Steelman used a 7-1 run on the back of Jasmin Gonzalez Guzman’s strength up front. She had a pair of kills during that run to give the Steelmen their first lead of the night.

Joliet Central hung right with Plainfield South for the next few points, but after battling to a 12-12 draw, Grace Malek caught fire for the Cougars. She was responsible for three of the six unanswered points Plainfield South scored from that point forward.

The Steelmen refused to quit, putting up three unanswered of their own to trim it to 18-15, but the Cougars slowly but surely pulled away to get the win.

“We just really focused on playing our game knowing how we could play,” said Malek. “We stayed calm and collected throughout. It’s OK if the other team gets points, because it’s a game of mistakes. We knew if they’d get a point, we’d just have to side right back out and play our game.”

The senior captain finished with seven kills, while Camryn Brown had six digs for Joliet Central.

At 5-5, the Cougars have obviously been good enough to wins games this season and have generally been competitive. That record also reflects things aren’t quite where they want them to be either. They’l continue building momentum moving forward, or at least they hope to.

“I feel like (as a team) we’re halfway there,” coach Michelle Altes-Kirby said. “We still have a lot of growth needed on certain aspects of our game. Once we figure out those little things, we’ll be full-on.”

The game marked the third consecutive loss for Joliet Central after opening the year 5-2. What’s more frustrating is it was the third straight sweep, as well.

Still, the Steelmen showed tremendous progress from their last match against Rich Township on Tuesday. They also showed tremendous resiliency in fighting back during the second set.

“I thought our blocking was so much better this game,” coach Kevin O’Connell said. “We were getting touches on ball, where as the past few weeks we weren’t getting those touches. The takeaway should be that our defense was much better today.”

O’Connell added that if the team plays like it did Thursday, there should be more wins on the horizon.

“Our setting and offense have gotten a lot better throughout the year,” O’Connell said. “I think our serve-receive still needs to be a lot better, but I think that’s every team. I think overall we’ve gotten better overall.”