Girls volleyball: JCA’s serving leads to 2-set sweep of Minooka

MINOOKA – In most volleyball matches, the serve is an afterthought, as play at the net tends to dominate.

That was not the case Wednesday night when Joliet Catholic Academy defeated Minooka, 25-16, 25-16, in a nonconference match.

The Angels (5-4) used their serve as an offensive weapon, recording 10 aces and repeatedly putting the Indians (2-5) on their heels. Minooka, on the other hand, had trouble keeping its serves in the court, as it was guilty of eight serving errors.

“Our girls were very aggressive with their serves,” JCA coach Kisha Cameron said. “They all did a real good job.”

Before a large crowd with loud student sections on both sides, Minooka took an early 4-3 lead in the first set before Olivia Chovanec tied it for JCA with a kill. She then stepped to the service line and served two straight aces, and the Angels never trailed again in the set. Chovanec finished with a team-high six kills.

Libero Lauren Cardwell got into the ace act the next time JCA had the serve, giving the Angels a 9-5 lead. Minooka rallied to make it 9-8 on a kill by Lily King before a back-row kill by Chovanec got the serve back for JCA. Two straight Minooka hitting errors gave JCA a 12-8 lead and, after the two teams traded serving errors, Ellie Blotnik (five kills) got an ace to make it 14-9. JCA continued to pull away, and two straight kills by Blotnik, followed by back-to-back aces by Cardwell, put the Angels ahead 23-13. Blotnik got the final two JCA points on kills to end the set.

Throughout both sets, the student sections traded chants, informing the other side of the placement of the net, telling the other side they couldn’t hear them, or suggesting that the other side look at the scoreboard. It felt like a playoff atmosphere, and both sides enjoyed it.

One player in particular who enjoyed the noise was JCA middle hitter Ava Neushwander. Neushwander did not have a kill or a block in the first set, but made her presence felt in the second with four kills and a block.

“The idea for us is to spread out the offense,” Neushwander said. “Once we’re able to do that, we are able to run more things and I can get more involved. We really work hard on our serving. We want to be aggressive as possible and serve at seams between people and we did that well tonight.

“I love a crowd like this. It gets the adrenaline going, and it makes you focus more on the game to try and block the noise out.”

With JCA holding a 6-5 lead in the second set, Neushwander delivered her first kill. After a pair of four-hit violations by Minooka, Blotnik served back-to-back aces for an 11-5 Angels lead. Minooka got a kill by King, but Neushwander answered with a kill of her own. Chovanec then had back-to-back kills by give JCA a 15-7 lead. Later, Neushwander’s fourth kill put JCA ahead 18-11 and, for good measure, she delivered a block for a 22-14 lead. Neushwander came out so that Emma Alstott could serve and, sure enough, Alstott got an ace for a 23-14 lead. Chovanec then got a kill on each of JCA’s final two points.

“We were pretty solid all around,” Cameron said. “It was great to see a lot of support on both sides of the gym. It was a nice environment for this early in the season.

“Ava just took over in the middle of the second set. We love it when she does that.”

King had five kills, eight assists and four digs to lead Minooka, while Rachel Karceski had four kills and Makenzie Brass had three kills, two blocks and three digs.

“They had a lot of aces and we missed a lot of serves,” Minooka coach Carrie Prosek said. “You don’t want to give a team as good as JCA that many points. They play defense well and they set well. Their libero is probably the best one we will see all year.

“We love to play tough teams like this. We are still trying to figure out who works well with who, but I am proud of all of our girls for how hard they played. We don’t have a lot of returning players, so a lot of the girls are trying to learn new positions. But we want to play matches like this so we will be ready for the postseason.”