Julia Adams directs a balanced attack as Joliet West volleyball sweeps Plainfield South

JOLIET — Last season, Julia Adams of Joliet West was a freshman setter for the Tigers, leading them to their best-ever record and a sectional championship.

Nine seniors graduated from last year’s team, leaving Adams as one of the few remaining starters and a sort of elder statesman despite being only a sophomore this season. Adams was instrumental in Tuesday’s 25-21, 25-16 Southwest Prairie win over Plainfield South, distributing the ball to several hitters and keeping the Cougars off balance. Adams finished with 11 assists.

“We have a lot of new players this year,” Adams said. “After losing nine seniors from last year, this is pretty much a completely different team. I like being one of the leaders on the floor.

“It’s a little easier for me to do that this year because so many of the girls are closer to my own age. But it’s still a new group and it has been fun learning all the different personalities and the way they want the ball set.”

The Tigers (16-4, 6-0) got off to a bit of a slow start and didn’t lead for the first time until 5-4. From there, though, the balance in their offense took over. Eden Eyassu had a pair of kills, while Lexie Grevengoed had four, Emma Salerno two and Faith Jordan had one to help West move the lead out to 19-7.

Plainfield South (11-9, 2-4), though, didn’t go away. The Cougars trailed 20-9, but used an amazing serving run by Grace Malek, which included five aces, to rally and tie it at 21. Unfortunately for South, that’s where the scoring ended as West scored the final four points on a kill by Adams, as ace by Sydney Barlog and a pair of South hitting errors. Malek finished with five aces and three kills, while teammate Savannah Stepanek also had three kills.

“We had a nice run at the end of the first set,” South coach Michelle Altes-Kirby said. “We seem to be pretty good at getting to 20 or 21, whether we get out to the early lead or have to come back. But, we are struggling to finish sets after that, and we need to keep working on that.

“Our serving has come a long way since the beginning of the season. Now is the time of the season where we need to start putting everything together. We will work on our blocking and hitting around the block at practice.”

The second set was similarly close early, with ties at 4, 5 and 6 before Joliet West got an ace from Lina Govoni and a kill each by Mady Gant and Eyassu to move out to a 10-6 lead. It was 12-8 before Salerno sandwiched a pair of kills around a pair of South hitting errors, leading the Tigers to a 16-8 advantage. They kept adding, and a kill by Grevengoed and a block by Jordan on consecutive points put the mahead 19-10. Grevengoed, Govoni and Gant added kills down the stretch to cap the victory.

Grevengoed led West with eight kills and six digs, while Eyassu (7 digs) and Salerno each had six kills. Govoni had 13 assists, four blocks and 10 digs, while Barlog had nine digs.

“We had good balance tonight,” West coach Chris Lincoln said. “Our defense did a good job, and Plainfield South made us earn our points. Once we cleaned up a couple of things, we played pretty well.

“These girls work well together. We are a young team, but a lot of the girls play club together, so they know each other. They are ready to come in here and make their own statement. They realize what it takes to be a great team, and they have had some great moments already. Everyone plays their roles, and these girls have a lot of athletic ability and grit.”