Girls volleyball: Bolingbrook outlasts Joliet West in tight opening match

JOLIET — For a season-opening match, Tuesday night’s matchup featuring Bolingbrook at Joliet West felt like a regional championship.

Both teams battled to the bitter end, and Bolingbrook came away with a 25-15, 21-25, 25-17 win.

The Raiders, who won the first regional title in school history last season, rode the 1-2 punch of Cydney Anderson and Madison Shroba. Anderson and Shroba each finished with 15 kills and, time and time again, when Bolingbrook needed a point, the ball went to one of them.

“This was the type of match we want,” Anderson, a 5-10 senior, said. “We want to be tested against good teams. Our setters [Olivia Vaughn and Sarah Harvey] did a good job of getting the ball to us.

“Madison and I don’t care who gets set, as long as the ball hits the floor on the other side of the net.”

Joliet West, though, made it tough for the ball to hit the floor. The Tigers played a scrappy defensive game all night, and were led by Ava Grevengoed (11 kills, 6 digs), Gabby Piazza (3 kills, 5 digs, 3 aces), and Ashlyn Noon (12 assists, 9 digs).

“We had a tremendous effort tonight,” West coach Chris Lincoln said. “You don’t want to start the season with a loss, but this will help us get our game plan refined.”

Both teams struggled early with serving and serve receive, as service errors and aces were prevalent. Bolingbrook held an 11-5 lead in the first set before a West timeout, and the Tigers rallied to close to within 13-11 before Bolingbrook took over. Back-to-back kills by Shroba put the Raiders ahead, 20-12, and an ace by Chinenye Ifeajekwu made it 21-12. West got a kill by Piazza and a block by Peyton Darguzis to pull to within 22-15, but Bolingbrook scored the last three points of the set, the final one on an ace by Shroba.

“We are fortunate to have Cyd and Madison,” DeSerf said. “We need to spread it out a little more, but we are confident that they can get it done.

“I was happy with our defense tonight. I always tell the girls to get after it. If they can bring the ball up, then our setters can do magical things with it to get it to our hitters.”

Besides her 15 kills, Anderson had a block, an ace and six digs, while Shroba had an ace and eight digs. Harvey collected 19 assists, while Vaughn had 12. Ifeajekwu had a pair of aces and Angie Pena added three blocks, including two in the latter stages of the final set.

The second set belonged to Joliet West from the start. Bolingbrook was whistled for a four-hit violation on the first point, then Piazza served three straight aces to put the Tigers ahead, 4-0. Bolingbrook did manage to take a 10-9 lead, but West got kills from Piazza and Darguzis sandwiched around a Raider hitting error to take the lead for good at 12-10. With Piazza at the service line, the Tigers scored five straight points for a 15-10 lead and never looked back. The closest Bolingbrook got after that was 22-19.

The Raiders turned the tables to open the third set, as Anderson got back-to-back kills in an early 3-0 run. The set was then tied at 4 and 5 before Bolingbrook went on an 10-1 run that featured two kills each by Shroba and Anderson as well as two blocks from Pena.

“Angie is only a sophomore,” DeSerf said. “But she has a pretty good floor. And, as we saw at times tonight, her ceiling can be high. You don’t get a lot of girls that want to play in the middle, but she does. She’s big and quick and she works hard.”

Trailing 17-11, the Tigers refused to quit, pulling to within 22-18 on a kill by Grevengoed. Bolingbrook then got a kill by Shroba to move ahead 23-18 and Anderson closed it with two straight kills.

“Our defense is gritty,” Lincoln said. “We just need to keep our confidence up and let the hard work we have put in shine through. If we keep playing tough matches like this, it will only make us better.”