Girls volleyball: Aleksa Simkus’ 10 kills lead Lockport past Plainfield Central

LOCKPORT – Aleksa Simkus isn’t the tallest player on a volleyball court.

The Lockport senior outside hitter admits to standing 5-foot-8, which isn’t short for situations, but can be considered that for someone playing in the front row.

What Simkus lacks in height, she makes up for in quickness, jumping ability and the intelligence to know where to hit the ball.

Those things combined to help her lead the Porters with 10 kills Tuesday in a 25-19, 25-14 nonconference win over Plainfield Central.

“I’m pretty short,” Simkus said. “Sometimes people yell, ‘Hey, they have a short girl in the front row.’ So I have to make up for it with angles and placement on my shots.

“We worked a lot on tempo yesterday in practice, playing quicker. We were able to do that pretty well tonight.”

Lockport setter Lainey Green (14 assists) repeatedly put the ball where Simkus could get the best swing on it, and Simkus finished it off. She had five kills in each set, while teammates Grace Juergens and Meg Consigny each had three, Jenna Kolosta had two and Lauren Brown added one. Payton Malinoski led the Porters (13-3) with eight digs, while Maeve Higham had two aces.

“This was a pretty solid match for us,” Lockport coach Nick Mraz said. “We were a little shaky at the start, but we were able to fix some things we wanted to fix. We had more touches on blocks and our tempo was better. We worked on that at practice yesterday, so it was nice to see it working in a match.

“We got some girls who don’t play a lot into the match, and they did a good job. We expect them to come in and play with the same intensity. Sometimes that’s difficult to do after they have been sitting for a set and a half, but they did a real good job of that tonight.”

Plainfield Central (4-7) stayed right with the Porters in the early going, grabbing a 12-10 lead in the first set after a kill by Emma Romberg.

Lockport, however, rebounded to outscore the Wildcats, 15-7, the rest of the way to take the first set. The Porters showcased their depth during that stretch, as Simkus only had one kill. Also adding kills late in the first set were Kolosta, Kylee Schurig, Hailey Rak and Consigny, who also had a block and two aces.

The second set also was close early, featuring ties at 1, 4, 5 and 6 before Lockport began to pull away. The Porters led 14-8 after a kill by Kolosta before a Central timeout.

Out of the timeout, Layla Collins put down one of her team-high six kills to make it 14-9, but the Wildcats got no closer.

“Our girls are a very scrappy bunch,” Plainfield Central coach Bob Richardson said. “They are a fun team to coach. It’s not an excuse, but they have had a very busy few days. We had a match Thursday, then they had a tournament that they worked Friday and Saturday, a match Monday and another one tonight. It has helped us analyze how we need to incorporate our conditioning.

“Layla had a big night, but we try to mix things up. We don’t want to get too predictable. We have girls shuffling positions and rotations. It’s a work in progress, and there will always be little tweaks here and there.”

Lockport now heads into the brutal Southwest Suburban Conference portion of its schedule with a match at Andrew on Thursday.

“This was a nice tune-up for us before conference,” Mraz said. “We played Andrew at their tournament and beat them, so they will be out to get us. From here on out, all of our conference matches count, not only for the conference race but for sectional seeding.

“We are hosting a sectional, and I told the girls that if they want to be playing in it instead of working it, every match counts. If we want an easier road to get to our sectional, we need to get wins now.”