At 5-foot-9, Minooka junior outside hitter Bennett Robinson will never be the biggest guy on the volleyball court.

That didn’t prevent him from standing tall Monday night in a 19-25, 25-21, 26-24 nonconference loss to Andrew.

Robinson finished with a team-leading nine kills and added a pair of aces, nearly leading the Indians (10-21) to the upset of the Thunderbolts (22-11) on their own floor.

“When we look at our regional, we are starting off with a team [Oswego] that this team [Andrew] beat,” Robinson said. “Playing like we did tonight against Andrew, that makes us feel really good going into the regionals.

“Wins and losses do matter during the regular season, but at this point of the year is about how well you are playing, and we keep playing better and better.”

The Indians got out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set and didn’t trail except for 11-10. With the set tied at 12, Robinson delivered a kill to give his team the lead for good. He later added an ace, then secured the set with a kill on set point.

“We’ve been working on setting small goals and trying to hit them,” Minooka coach JoDee Kovanda said. “Like we want to be the first team to five points, first team to get two blocks, stuff like that. If we can hit those small goals, the big goals will take care of themselves.

“We’ve been getting better and better at hitting those small goals. Now, we have to make one of those goals to finish off a match.”

Andrew flipped the script in the second set as the T-Bolts got out to a 13-6 lead and never looked back behind the 1-2 attacking punch of Sean Gagen (10 kills) and Isaac Okewole (13 kills).

In the third set, Minooka took control in the early going, grabbing a 14-7 lead after an ace by Mason Pilon and moving out to an 18-10 advantage following a block by Evan Schenck. Back-to-back kills from Rowan Stengel (7 kills) and Robinson put the Indians ahead 20-12.

Andrew, though, got three straight kills from Okewole, then two Minooka hitting errors, to close to within 20-17. A kill by Robinson put Minooka ahead 21-17, but Okewole answered with a kill to make it 21-18. Jack Hopman delivered a block to put Minooka ahead 22-18, but Andrew got back-to-back kills from Gagen and Prestyn Krejczyk to get to within 22-20.

A serving error put Minooka ahead 23-20, but the Indians had a serving error of their own, then made two hitting errors, and Andrew tied it at 23. An Andrew hitting error gave Minooka a 24-23 lead, but Andrew’s Aidan Aguayo got a kill to tie it, Okewole got a kill for a 25-24 Andrew lead and a Minooka hitting error ended it.

“We are a roller-coaster type of team,” Kovanda said. “When we are playing well, we can play with anybody. But, we have a tendency to let our mistakes snowball too much and give up long point streaks.

“We did a good job of getting our middles involved tonight. If we can get them involved early like we did tonight, then it opens things up for the guys on the pins, and we can get going pretty good.”

The Indians have two more Southwest Prairie Conference matches before beginning regional play next week.

“Everyone on the team is playing well right now,” Robinson said. “We want to be playing our best at the end of the year, and it feels like we are doing that. We’re having a lot of fun playing together, and that makes things feel even better. Teams might look at our record and think we aren’t that good, but we are ready to surprise some people.”