The potential narrative around the Joliet West girl’s volleyball team’s victory on Thursday night may be a little unfair.

When a team is as successful as the Tigers have been these past few years, the expectations get raised. Thursday’s 25-18, 25-21 victory over Yorkville gave the Tigers 18 wins in a row. It was the 28th sweep of the season and the 34th win overall. It was for the Oswego East Regional championship, Joliet West’s fourth consecutive regional title.

At this point, some might say the Tigers make it look easy. Those people might say anything less than a regional championship would be an underachievement. Those people don’t understand how difficult reaching the sectional semifinals in 4A is.

“These girls have worked their butts off,” Tigers coach Chris Lincoln said. “They’ve bought into me, my coaching staff and what we do. For a public school to win a regional four years in a row is a huge deal. I’m very proud of that and I don’t think they’re done.”

That the Tigers have managed to have so much success year after year is impressive enough. That they’ve had so much sustained success this year with the number of overall games they’ve had to play is all the more commendable.

The game itself was eerily similar to how so many of Joliet West’s games have gone this year. Set one was a back-and-forth battle to start with the two teams exchanging points to a 14-14 draw. Four straight points gave the Tigers the separation they needed. While the Foxes got back within two right after that, Joliet West outscored them 7-2 the rest of the way.

Set two was practically identical to their regional semifinal win over Joliet Central. A 4-1 lead became a 6-6 tie which became a 12-8 deficit in a hurry. The Tigers didn’t get to where they are now without learning a thing or two about resiliency. They rattled off eight unanswered points and Yorkville couldn’t get closer than two the rest of the way.

Lincoln credited Yorkville for giving them their best effort. He added that in all three of the matches between the two squads this year, Yorkville gave a respectable fight. Still, all three of those matches went in Joliet West’s favor.

Though a lot of matches have given Lincoln anxiety early in the second set. The Tigers’ tendency to start slow in the second hasn’t stopped them from winning, but in such a successful year, it is one critique worth noting.

“It’s not planned,” Lincoln joked. “We don’t do it on purpose. I don’t know if they like to get pushed and make things more of a challenge or what. I can’t figure it out, it makes me anxious but I guess it works for us. It won’t work against every team, but it’s worked for us so I’m very proud.”

Joliet West was led by Julia Adams (17 assists), Na’Riah Autman (10 kills), Lexie Grevengoed (nine kills, nine digs, one ace) and Lina Govoni (seven kills, eight assists).

As for Yorkville (19-18), it was still a year to be proud of. Six seniors led the Foxes to a 7-4 record in conference play and they advanced to the regional finals despite entering the postseason as an eighth seed. Coach Ryan Donato expressed gratitude for his crop of players.

“We worked really hard this season not just with volleyball, but in making them better leaders and adults,” Donato said. “What I thought was great was our seniors were totally into it. Once you can make that happen it’s easier for our younger girls to buy in. They’ve been really great role models and the younger kids have been super successful. I think we have a bright future here at Yorkville for volleyball.”

Next up, the Tigers will head home as they host the sectional. Their semifinal match will take place Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Oswego. Autman said this team just needs to keep doing what it’s been doing in order to keep the train rolling.

“I think it’s just going to take a strong mentality,” the sophomore said. “It’s going to be harder with harder teams the rest of the way, but I just feel like if we just level up that’s all it’ll take. If we have a strong mental mindset that’s all it will take (to keep winning).”