Peyton Facio distributes ball well in Plainfield Central’s sweep of Joliet Central

PLAINFIELD – Usually Plainfield Central runs an offense that features two setters. However, one of those setters, Natalie Suffecool, was absent from Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference match against Joliet Central due to illness, leaving the setting duties in the hands of Peyton Facio.

The Wildcats didn’t miss a beat.

Facio spread the wealth to her team’s arsenal of hitters – most prominently Alivia Arsenault – and the Wildcats came away with a 25-16, 25-12 win over the Steelmen.

“I wasn’t really nervous,” Facio said about knowing she would be the only setter. “That’s what I usually do when I play club, so I am pretty used to it. I was actually happy to do it.”

Having heavy hitters like Alivia Arsenault (10 kills), Alexa Schubbe (four kills) and Malaya Morris (four kills) to choose from also added to Facio’s mood.

“I wanted to get everyone involved,” she said. “It makes things a lot easier when I know I can put it up pretty much anywhere and someone is going to put it down. It was also fun to get a win on senior night.”

The Wildcats (8-26, 2-9) used the hitting of Arsenault and some strong serving that included an ace each by Mya Broadway and Facio to take an 11-6 lead in the first set. Joliet Central (8-18, 0-11) got a kill by Reyna Franchini and an ace by Sadie Johnson to cut the lead to 11-8. After a kill by Schubbe, the Wildcats made a pair of hitting errors to bring Joliet Central to within 12-10, but that was as close as the Steelmen got.

“The girls came out ready to play tonight,” Plainfield Central coach Bob Richardson IV said. “This was one of the cleanest matches we have played all year. We didn’t make very many unforced errors, which is really good to see heading into the postseason.

“Peyton did a great job tonight, especially without Natalie here. We switched to a 5-1, and Peyton did very well with it. She was able to mix it up and get it to a lot of different hitters.”

Joliet Central got two kills by Aaliyah Calderon and one from Delany Moran (five kills) early in the second set to grab a 6-5 lead before the Wildcats tied it with a kill by Schubbe. Then came an ace by Morris to give them the lead for good.

The strong serving continued, as Plainfield Central delivered four more aces the rest of the way.

“We had a lot of aces tonight and not a lot of serving errors,” Richardson said. “That can be a big difference in a match, and it was for us tonight. I was really happy with the way Miah Denson played tonight. She doesn’t usually play in the back row, but we put her in there tonight, and she really did a nice job.

“We are playing pretty well lately, which is nice to see.”