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JOLIET – Five of the seven announced starters for Plainfield South in Thursday night’s Southwest Prairie Conference match with Plainfield Central were seniors.
But it was the lone sophomore in the starting lineup, Grace Malek, who made the Cougars’ engine purr in a 25-17, 24-26, 25-18 win. The 5-foot-11 setter/outside hitter racked up 22 assists and eight kills to lead South to the victory, improving its record to 10-3 overall and 2-1 in the SPC.
“I feel like I fit in pretty well with everyone,” Malek said about playing with the older players. “They have made me feel very welcome, and we work well together.”
Malek’s place on the court is permanent, as she does not come out for a replacement. For most of the night, her favorite target when she was setting was senior Sami Lanan, who led all players with 17 kills. After Malek’s eight kills, junior Savannah Stepanek had seven for the Cougars. Kyla Baetzel led South with 18 digs.
“It’s nice to have a couple of hitters to go to,” South coach Kate Kendall said. “Plainfield Central was putting their big girl [Layla Collins] opposite Savannah to try to slow her down, but Sami was able to have the hot hand tonight, and Grace hit well when she had the chance.
“Not a lot of teams have two strong right-side hitters like we do, so we can create some problems that way.”
The Cougars gave the Wildcats (4-11, 0-3) problems in the first set, as Lanan finished the set with five kills. Plainfield Central also was guilty of six service errors in the opening set, compared with only four in the second and third combined.
“We keep getting better every time out, and that’s what matters.”
— Robert Richardson IV, Plainfield Central girls volleyball coach
“Once we started getting our serves in, things went a lot better,” Plainfield Central coach Robert Richardson IV said. “We try to work a lot on our serving, but we have only had two practices in the last two weeks. Once we started to get the serves in, we were a lot more consistent.
“It was nice for us to get it to a third set. The girls were very competitive, and they worked hard to keep that third set close, too. We just need to bring that energy and consistency more often. We show flashes where you can see that we are talented, but we need to have a more constant flow from start to end.
“We keep getting better every time out, and that’s what matters.”
Collins was the central figure in Central’s second-set win.
With South leading 15-13, she got the serve back with a kill and then stepped to the service line and delivered two straight aces to put the Wildcats ahead 16-15. Another Collins kill gave Central a 20-19 lead, and a block by teammate Kylie Bakhaus made it 21-19. South tied it on a pair of kills by Stepanek before Bakhaus got a kill.
A South net violation made it 23-21. South tied it at 23 on a kill by Lanan and a Wildcats net violation, then took a 24-23 lead on an ace by Lanan. Central got the serve back with the score tied at 24, and Renee Boekeloo and Bakhaus had back-to-back kills to end it and force a third set.
Central rode the momentum of the win to a 3-0 lead in the third set before South started to chip away, eventually tying it at 6, 7 and 8 before taking a 10-8 lead on a kill by Malek and an ace by Mackenzie Alexander. Central tied it on kills by Abigail Kearney and Collins, only to see Malek deliver five straight service points, three on kills by Lanan, to make it 16-10.
The closest Central could get after that was 20-17.
“It was kind of a slow-paced game,” Kendall said. “After that second set, I told the girls to play at their speed and when they had good looks to swing away.
“Our defense was very good tonight, and they communicated very well with each other. They trust each other out there, and they did a good job tonight.”