Girls volleyball: Joliet West completes epic comeback against Plainfield North to stay unbeaten

PLAINFIELD - Through one set Thursday, the Plainfield North girls volleyball team looked like it would be the team to finally hand Joliet West its first loss of the season.

In Set 2, it was as if two completely different teams took the court, and West looked like it couldn’t be stopped.

The switch flipped again after that, and Plainfield North found itself preparing for victory.

When the final point was scored, however, it was the Tigers from Joliet West, not Plainfield North, who were celebrating.

After dropping the first set, Joliet West was absolutely dominant in Set 2 and staged a monumental comeback in Set 3 to beat Plainfield North 17-25, 25-9, 25-22.

With that, Joliet West remains undefeated at 10-0.

“They continue to surprise me every game,” Joliet West coach Chris Lincoln said. “They fought back and showed incredible grit tonight, just like they did in our tournament this past weekend.”

After Joliet West scored the first two points of the match, Plainfield North took full control in a hurry. Plainfield North scored four unanswered points and 11 of the next 13 to take a dominant 11-4 advantage.

After Lincoln called timeout, things evened out in terms of scoring exchanges. For each point Plainfield North picked up, Joliet West had an answer.

Still, with such an advantage piled up, Plainfield North held an 18-11 lead, and the scoring exchange halted when three straight kills made it 21-11.

Joliet West did not fold as they actually outscored Plainfield North the rest of the set, but the deficit was too much to overcome as the home Tigers bested the road Tigers 25-17.

Eden Eyassu was Joliet West’s leader on the night with three aces, six digs and six kills.

Set 2 got out to as opposite a start as possible with Joliet West reaping the benefits. It was 5-1 in favor of the visiting team in the blink of an eye before Plainfield North coach Matthew Slechta called timeout. That settled them a little as the offense got going, but Plainfield North still trailed 9-5 when Joliet West went on a 3-0 run and Slechta had to burn his final timeout down 12-5.

After a quick point exchange, it was all Lexie Grevengoed and Joliet West. Grevengoed finished with seven digs and six kills.

Joliet West scored four straight and nine of the next 10 before coming out on top in dominating fashion 25-9.

That forced a decisive third set.

After a 2-2 start, the West Tigers took control yet again, scoring five to take a 7-2 edge in set three. However, Plainfield North did not go down without getting in their punches as they scored four straight and 11 of the next 12 to take the lead for the first time since Set 1, 13-8.

Three straight points by Mady Gant and company cut the deficit to 13-11, but Plainfield North regained advantage from there, increasing its lead to 18-13.

From there, however, it was Lina Govoni and West that regained dominance, scoring five straight to tie the game at 18. It was tied again at 22-22 before West scored two to reach match point. An error by Plainfield North resulted in the set and the match going to Joliet West.

Gant (six kills, five blocks), Govoni (six kills, six assists), Julia Adams (18 assists, six digs) and Faith Jordan (four blocks) all contributed for West.

“We just kept talking [when we were down],” Eyassu said. “We did it last week and we knew we could do it again. Coach Lincoln just told us to fix the things we can fix, and that kept us going.”

While disappointed by the loss, Plainfield North (1-11) wasn’t hanging its heads despite almost pulling off a major upset. Slechta is just looking for them to get better.

“We play a really tough schedule,” he said. “Our record means nothing because of the quality of the teams we’re playing. We’ve made tremendous progress this season. Tonight we took a step back, but I’m not worried. It’s only going to help us down the road.”