Girls Volleyball: Haley Zeck, Oswego determined to bounce back from two losses after 7-0 start to season

OSWEGO – Haley Zeck’s motto when she arrived with Oswego’s volleyball program as a freshman was a simple one: leave the program in a better place than how she found it.

It is apparent that Zeck, now a senior setter, has done just that.

It is the case when Oswego wins, which the program has done quite a bit of this spring in record-setting fashion. It is also so after losses.

So when Zeck’s coach and mom, Julie Zeck, kept the team in the gym Tuesday night for an impromptu post-match practice after a 26-24, 25-23 loss to Plainfield South, the younger Zeck shrugged her shoulders and said “I don’t blame her, teaches us a lesson.”

“In the past, we would have said OK, it’s a loss, we’re used to that,” Haley Zeck said. “But these girls are taking it pretty hard.”

That was clear in a lengthy post-match huddle after Oswego’s second loss in as many nights following a 7-0 start to the season, a program record.

The Panthers (7-2) led in both sets, 24-21 late in the first and 9-3 early in the second, but couldn’t quite put away a spirited effort from Plainfield South (2-5).

“I don’t know if it’s exhaustion,” coach Zeck said, “or complacency.”

It would be fair if it was a good dose of the former.

Oswego, after a 14-day COVID-19 quarantine, has now played six matches in seven days, and has six more matches in the next seven days leading up to the season-ending Southwest Prairie Conference tournament.

“Our hitters, we have very few of them, and our bodies are suffering. We have played multiple matches in a row because of our two-week quarantine,” Haley Zeck said. “We had two practices and then we came back Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Our hitters, their shoulders are sore, the back of their legs are sore, and the training table, it’s like everybody has heat on their backs. My hip popped out, and my back is strained from overusing. It’s a lot of volleyball. But I believe in our team and I have very high hopes.”

Oswego, even with leading hitter Destiny Grey sitting out the first half of the first set, dug itself out of a 14-10 hole, and seemed in command up 24-21 after Grey blasted a shot through the Plainfield South defense.

But the Cougars showed surprising perseverance for a team with one win coming in. Plainfield South fought off three set points, took a 25-24 lead and finished it off with Allie Holba’s ace serve.

“It has to do with us as a program,” Cougars coach Kate Kendall said. “We’ve clearly had a few losses, and they’re kind of used to that feeling of having their backs against the wall but they’re really good about fighting and don’t give up easy.”

Oswego jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set on a six-point service run by Mykenzi Comperda with three aces, but Plainfield South pulled even at 12-12 and took the lead on Lana Czlapinski’s crosscourt kill. Oswego led 16-14 after Grey’s back-row smash, but Plainfield South followed with a 6-0 run to take the lead for good.

Czlappinski had six kills and Amelia Gutierrez had three kills for the Cougars, Gutierrez also adding two blocks. Gray had eight kills, Diana Whitfield four kills and Zeck 16 assists for Oswego.

“In general, the season has been wonderful, but I don’t want them to settle for what we have already accomplished and not continue to push for more,” coach Zeck said. “They’re capable of so much more.”

Haley Zeck said they still can get there.

“We’ve made a big, big improvement from last year. We came in expecting to be 10th out of 11 teams in conference so I feel like we’ve improved ourselves in the big picture,” she said. “This group of girls, we don’t give up. Two losses, we’ll come back from it.”