Plainfield Central defeats Joliet West 25-20, 25-20

JOLIET - Two very similar volleyball teams met Thursday night at Joliet West as the Tigers hosted Plainfield Central in both team’s finale before next week’s IHSA regionals begin.

The Wildcats (17-16, 6-5) came away with the Southwest Prairie Conference victory 25-20, 25-20.

“I really feel a little better right now with how we are playing,” Central coach Robert Richardson IV said. “We are playing with much more confidence, have a little streak going and everything seems to be coming together which is good going into next week.”

West led 2-1 in the first set, but then the Wildcats reeled off seven straight points, that included two aces from Kinsey Bakhaus. Central was never threatened the remainder of the way.

Kailey Fearday led the Wildcats with seven kills as four of those came in the first set.

“It’s been a little bit of a bumpy road, but as all teams do, we are coming together at the right time,” Fearday, a senior, said. “We started off really strong at the beginning of the season and now that we are playing better again I’m really excited to start the tournament next week. I know it’s cliche but we just have to take it one point, one set and one match at a time.”

The second set began with a run by the Wildcats to give them a 7-1 lead, but the Tigers seemed to get it together and clawed their way back. Cutting the margin to two points at 18-16, then had more momentum and trailed 21-20. But Central scored the final four points to gain the win.

Jenny Shook had 18 assists for Central and earlier in the season passed 1,000 assists for her career.

“This has been a fun senior year, especially after last year and getting to play with my teammates, who’ve I played with and known for a long time,” Shook said. “When West came back in the second set, we have been kind of used to that this year, but in practice lately we have really been working on those final points and not getting frustrated when the other team makes a run at us.”

Central will open play next Tuesday in the West Aurora regional as the sixth seed and will face eleventh seeded Naperville Central.

“There is always room for improvement no matter where we are at in the season,” Richardson said. “We are always looking to improve, but the pieces are in place and we just need to take it one moment at a time.”

West (17-18, 5-6) will open regional play on their home floor next Tuesday as the eighth seed and they will play the ninth seeded team from Shepard. Having the home court advantage is something West coach Al Mart is a little concerned about.

“We didn’t handle the pressure well tonight,” Mart said. “It was Senior night, we had a big crowd and it was loud. We have to be ready to compete in that atmosphere right from the start. We played well in that atmosphere against Minooka earlier in the season, so I don’t know what was different tonight. But give Plainfield Central credit, they took advantage of our mistakes tonight and we didn’t play well at all in the first set, but the good thing is we only lost by five.

“The second set we played hard and fought back, but we dug ourselves a hole early and then you have to use so much energy to get back, the mistakes crept back in at the end. If we play like we can we can do well next week.”