Girls volleyball: Plainfield South cruises past Joliet Central

JOLIET – It took a little while for Plainfield South to get the game played at its pace Thursday. Once the Cougars did, though, they dominated and secured a 25-13, 25-10 win over Southwest Prairie Conference rival Joliet Central.

Plainfield South (9-2, 1-1 SPC) actually started quickly on the scoreboard, getting out to an early 4-0 lead that extended to 13-5 after back-to-back kills by Sami Lanan, who led all players with 10 kills on the night. Joliet Central (4-5, 0-2) was able to rally, however, getting three aces from Sadie Johnson and a block by Gabby Leal to cut the lead 13-12.

That’s when the action sped up.

The Cougars began to move quickly during and between points, getting the ball back to server Sophia Pellegrini as quickly as they could, and Pellegrini had a pair of aces in a nine-point run. Lanan had two kills in the stretch, while Savannah Stepanek (8 kills) had three. The spurt moved the score to 23-12 before a hitting error got the Steelmen a point. Stepanek and Lanan then each had a kill to provide the final margin in the first set.

“We want to play fast,” Lanan said. “We don’t want to play at the other team’s pace. We want to keep things at our pace, and we did that tonight.

“We also like to try to set everyone up and keep everyone involved. It makes it harder for other teams to get a read on us.”

The Cougars continued to move quickly on the court and scoreboard in the second set, getting two kiils from Lanan and two aces by Grace Malek for a 4-0 lead. Freshman Leah Oehmke served two straight aces and a kill by Stepanek gave South a 9-2 edge. Abby Hall then had four straight aces before a kill by Carolina Trifonov made it 19-4. Joliet Central closed to within 21-8 after an ace by Alyssa Flood and a block by Angela Ayivor. A kill by Ayivor made it 23-9. With the score 24-10, Lanan ended the match with a kill.

“We have had a nice start to the season,” said South coach Kate Kendall, noting wins over Lemont and Neuqua Valley as well as a first-place finish in the Bremen Tournament. “We have a lot of returners and a lot of depth. We are pretty versatile.

“We were able to pick up the tempo and keep it at our pace. Even between points, we got the ball to our server quickly and transitioned well. Playing fast like that helps keep us focused and not let up.”

While the score may not indicate it, Central coach Kevin O’Connell liked what he saw from his team.

“Our girls played hard, and they never gave up,” O’Connell said. “They play hard, they work hard and they don’t shut it down if they are behind. We had that nice run to make it close in the first set, but then we had some self-inflicted wounds and all of a sudden the score was 23-12 and I was thinking, ‘Wasn’t it just 13-12?’

“The hard part is for our girls to get that out of their heads. Plainfield South is a great serving team, and they are a great defensive team. They move around so well on defense. We didn’t have many kills because they played great defense.

“This is the level of competition we are going to play in this conference. The score doesn’t reflect the improvement I have seen from last year and even from the beginning of this year. This is a build-on season, and we have started building.”