Call it a comeback: Lockport's Jenna Kolosta named Herald-News Girls Volleyball Player of the Year

It wasn’t a fun year for Lockport volleyball player Jenna Kolosta in 2023-24.

Kolosta was a junior and was looking forward to playing her high school season with a group of players that she had been playing with since grade school.

Unfortunately, she suffered a knee injury and had to watch from the sidelines as her team dropped a sectional semifinal match to Joliet West.

The memory of that loss pushed Kolosta throughout her rehabilitation in the offseason and gave her and her team incentive to outdo the previous season.

“It was tough to watch last season,” Kolosta, a 6-foot-2 middle hitter, said. “I fell on my knee during the summer season and I was not able to play on it. I was really looking forward to playing with that group, since I had been playing with a lot of them ever since I started playing volleyball when I was 8 years old.

“It was a lot of work and effort to come back, but it was definitely worth it.”

Kolosta was the driving force for the Porters this season, leading them to a 36-6 record and third place in Class 4A, the first state trophy for the program since a fourth-place finish in Class AA in 1996. Kolosta had 259 kills, a .386 hitting percentage and 84 blocks, all of which led the team, to go with 82 digs and 49 aces.

Her efforts earned her the honor of being named Herald-News Girls Volleyball Player of the Year.

“Jenna has been an integral piece to our program since she was a starter on varsity her freshman year,” Lockport coach Nick Mraz said. “Unfortunately, she lost her junior season due to injury, so there were a lot of unknowns coming into her senior season. Nevertheless, Jenna thrived in every aspect of her role.

“She was voted team captain, and she did all the little things, whether that was supporting her teammates, setting up equipment and simply doing things the right way. Those are the things at practice that can only be seen by her coaches and teammates, but it goes a long way.

“When it comes to the court, she was one of the most physical middles in the entire state. Our leader in kills, kill percentage, and blocks and our go-to in big moments, she was always dependable to get the job done. She was a pin-to-pin threat that most teams could not defend. I could not be more proud of her to see her resilience in bouncing back after injury to lead us throughout this historic season.”

Perhaps sparked by seeing their leader return from an injury, resilience was the theme of the season for the Porters. They had more than their share of three-game matches this season against one of the toughest schedules around.

“We played a lot of tough competition all season, so when it got into the postseason and we were playing all those good teams, we knew we could play with them and if it went three, we felt like we had an advantage,” Kolosta said.

A prime example of the Porters' resilience came in the supersectional. They lost the first set to Downers Grove South 25-23 but rebounded to take the second set 25-9 and carry that momentum into a 25-22 win in the third set to advance to the state finals. There, they lost a 25-14, 25-22 decision to eventual state champion Marist before beating Huntley 25-12, 25-21 to take third place.

And yet, it was a two-game match that Kolosta says was the turning point of the season.

“When we beat Loyola in two in the semifinals at the Lincoln-Way East Tournament, that was a big win for us,” Kolosta said. “That one really let us know that we could compete with, and beat, the top teams in the state.”

Kolosta also played softball when she was young but decided to stick with volleyball fairly quickly.

“I like volleyball because it’s more fast paced,” she said. “In volleyball, everyone has to be ready all the time. In softball, if you are an outfielder, like I was, if you have a good pitcher, you aren’t going to see much action. I like volleyball because you are involved in every play.”

Kolosta will continue her career at North Alabama, where she plans to study exercise science with the hopes of becoming a physical therapist or occupational therapist.