Girls volleyball: Plainfield South strong in all aspects during two-set win over Joliet Central

PLAINFIELD — Even though Plainfield South beat Neuqua Valley on Tuesday, the Cougars spent some extra time at practice Wednesday working on their serving.

That results of that extra time showed itself Thursday in a 25-11, 25-13 win over Southwest Prairie Conference rival Joliet Central.

No one appeared to have benefited from the extra work more than sophomore Bri Furto.

In the first set, Furto, a sophomore setter/right-side hitter, stepped to the service line with her team leading 9-6. By the time she was done, the Cougars (7-4, 1-1) held a commanding 20-6 lead. Five of the 11 points in Furto’s run were aces, and she finished the night with a team-high eight aces.

“We have been working on our serves quite often,” Furto said. “We don’t necessarily want aces, but we want to make it tough for the other team to receive and get them out of system.

“That worked well for us all night, and we really executed well in all parts of the game and came together as a team tonight.”

Joliet Central (2-4, 0-2) kept it close early. The first set was tied at 3 before South got a kill from middle Katie Wagnon, then three straight from outside hitter Savannah Stepanek to move out to a 7-3 lead. The Steelmen pulled to within 8-6 before a block by Wagnon got the serve back for Furto and the Cougars.

During Furto’s 11-point string, South’s Grace Malek, a junior setter/outside hitter, had back-to-back kills and Riley Kulik added a kill. After a serving error, Malek again had back-to-back kills for a 22-7 lead. Stepanek made it 23-8 on a back-row kill before three straight Central points, the last coming on a kill by Reyna Franchini. South ended it with a kill by Furto and, fittingly, an ace by Malek.

“We worked for about an hour on serving yesterday at practice,” South coach Michelle Kirby said. “We won Tuesday, but we struggled a little bit with our serves, so we spent a lot of time on it at practice. You could really see the improvement.”

Joliet Central was able to get a bit more offense going in the second set, getting kills from Makinsey Whitmore, Delany Moran and Sadie Johnson to stay within 14-8.

However, the serving of South stayed strong, and the Cougars were able to move out to a 20-13 lead when Furto went back to serve. She served the final five points, getting a kill each by Leah Oehmke and Malek before finishing the match with back-to-back aces.

Oehmke led Plainfield South with seven kills, while Stepanek and Malek each had six.

“Things are coming along,” said Kirby, who is in her first year as the Cougars’ head coach. “It’s nice that we have so many strong hitters. We’re able to keep a consistent attack. We can also mix it up as to who we are setting, so that keeps the opponents on their heels a little bit because they don’t know who is getting the ball.

“I was very happy with the way the girls came out ready to go tonight. They came out and took control, which I thought was impressive.”