Boys volleyball: Lincoln-Way West opens season with sweep of Plainfield North

NEW LENOX – Lincoln-Way West won a SouthWest Suburban Conference title last season with an unblemished mark in conference play. One match into the season and it looks like the Warriors could be poised for another run.

Seniors Noah Konopack and Connor Jaral picked up where they left off last season Monday night, leading the Warriors to a sweep of Plainfield North 25-12, 25-20 in the opener for both teams.

It was an outstanding start for the Warriors as they scored the first four points of the match before a quick three points by Plainfield North cut the deficit to one. It was all Warriors the rest of the set, however, as they scored seven of the next eight to take an 11-4 lead. The two teams traded blows from there with West’s lead becoming 16-8 before growing to 20-9 and ending at 25-12.

Plainfield North made it a contest in Set 2. After Lincoln-Way West jumped out to a 3-1 edge, the Tigers began fighting back. The Tigers managed to go up 8-6 before Lincoln-Way West tied it at 9. The Warriors scored three straight from there and six of the next seven to go up 15-10. North got within 16-13 and fought late but ultimately fell.

“I think my guys did a great job of just keeping composure and playing through errors and mistakes,” Lincoln-Way West head coach Jodi Frigo said. “We didn’t let it bother us and we were able to regroup. We have eight returners from last year’s team so there’s confidence from a team that has a little bit of experience playing with one another already.”

Lincoln-Way West enters the season with all but two starters from last year’s team back for another run. Jaral (291 kills and 61 digs in 2023) and Konopack (133 service points and 188 digs) were two of the biggest cogs in that 30-10 team that advanced to the sectional final. They were big again Monday with Jaral putting up eight kills, while Konopack had 23 assists and seven digs.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Konopack’s performance is that he was primarily a defense specialist last season and plays libero in club. He’s been asked to take on a new role and one game in, he’s responded to the challenge well.

“I thought we played great,” Jaral said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that didn’t play last year that are stepping up this year. We have two middles that didn’t play last year, one of our middles moved to outside and our setter doesn’t play setter. Everyone is coming into their spot and doing great, and we got the win today which is good.”

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Lincoln-Way West’s Connor Jaral powers a shot against Plainfield North on Monday, March 18, 2024 in New Lenox. (Gary Middendorf)

As for the Tigers, it’s an extremely young group under first-year head coach Nick Ramos. The Tigers are starting a sophomore at libero, Sean Jansen, a sophomore and a freshman at middle and have a freshman setter. There were some positives to build on in the opener, including a rally attempt in the second. Cole Clarke had two aces, while Dylan Sherry added three kills to lead the group.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids that are new to varsity,” Ramos said. “That’s not really an excuse either, right? They’re on varsity for a reason. I’d like to build off our passing and defending which we did really well. We just have to make sure we’re taking care of that ball in that third contact. If we’re playing really good volleyball out of system, that’s fine, we just have to make sure we’re really efficient.”

Plainfield North will play in the Belleville East Invite this weekend, while Lincoln-Way West will head to Joliet West for its invite.