Joliet West volleyball rallies to top Joliet Central on Pink Heals Night

JOLIET — Before Thursday night’s volleyball match between Joliet West and Joliet Central, several cancer survivors were announced and walked through a corridor lined with players from both programs during the annual Pink Heals Night in support of breast cancer victims and their families. Both sides of the bleachers were nearly full to capacity as well, with cheering and chanting coming from both student sections.

Perhaps inspired by that show of support, Joliet Central won the first set before Joliet West regrouped and won the final two sets to take the match 22-25, 25-9, 25-15 and remain unbeaten in Southwest Prairie Conference play.

West (25-5, 9-0) came out of the gates quickly and built a 7-3 lead before Central coach Kevin O’Connell called timeout. Whatever he said during the break worked, as the Steelmen outscored the Tigers 10-2 to open up a 13-9 lead, getting a kill each by Delany Moran and Makinsey Whitmore and aces by Cameron Salazar and Quetzal Beltran. Moran led the Steelmen with six kills on the night, while Whitmore had two.

“This was a fun, exciting three-set match,” Joliet Central coach Kevin O’Connell said. “When it comes to the Pink Heals match, I never know what to expect. The energy in the building, the big crowd. It hyped our girls up.

“We were able to play clean volleyball. We did the same thing last week when we won a set against Minooka. Joliet West is a very good team and they played great the rest of the way. But winning a set against them should give our girls a confidence boost. We won a set against Minooka, we won a set against Joliet West. These girls have shown that they can compete. Now, we need to eliminate some of the self-inflicted mistakes.”

Joliet West put it into all-gas, no-brakes mode in the second set, moving out to a 13-3 lead and never looking back. The Tigers’ serving got back on track after some uncharacteristic serving errors in the first set and finished the night with 16 aces, led by five from Lina Govoni and four by Sydney Piazza. Eden Eyassu had a match-high 11 kills for West, while Lexie Grevengoed had seven and Govoni had five. Faith Jordan had four kills and three blocks, while Mady Gant had three blocks. Govoni also had 10 assists, while Julia Adams led with 16.

Jordan and Gant were dominant in the middle all night defensively and gave the Tigers another point of attack.

“Mady and I work well together,” Jordan said. “It’s not always about getting the big block. It’s more about getting touches on the ball, making the other team adjust their shots and making things easier for our defense.

“I wasn’t nervous after we lost the first set. I am confident in my team and I knew we could bring it back. It was nice to see the ball set to me a few times tonight. I want to do anything I can to help the team and if that means I get set a little more, that’s great.”

The Tigers continued their momentum into the third set when they raced to a 7-0 lead. Govoni, who did not have a kill in the first two sets, had three kills in the run. Joliet Central (7-12, 0-9) cut the lead to 14-10, but got no closer as West outscored the Steelmen 11-5 the rest of the way.

“Our serve receive wasn’t very good in the first set and we had six missed serves,” West coach Chris Lincoln said. “Joliet Central played well. They were fighting and put up a good block. Once we got our serving and serve receive back in shape, we were able to get going.

“Faith Jordan was outstanding tonight. Sometimes the middles are the unsung heroes. She is such a big presence at the net on defense that it makes the other teams’ hitters have to think about what they are going to do. And, she is very powerful when she gets to swing. Both she and Mady Gant are nice weapons to have up our sleeve.

“Serving is a big part of our game, so I was happy to see us go from six serving errors in the first set to finishing the match with 16 aces.”