Girls volleyball: Joliet West rallies past Lockport for first regional title since 2016

TINLEY PARK – Ava Grevengoed was on the Joliet West volleyball team that lost to Lockport in last year’s regional title match.

She helped to make sure this time would be different.

Grevengoed and fellow junior outside hitter Gabby Piazza teamed up for 21 kills and seven aces as the Tigers turned the tables with a 22-25, 25-15, 25-18 victory over Lockport in the championship match of the Class 4A Andrew Regional on Thursday evening in Tinley Park.

“It feels amazing,” Grevengoed said. “We lost to them last year, and we showed how much we wanted it this time.”

It’s the first regional title for Joliet West (27-10) since 2016. The No. 6-seeded Tigers will face No. 2-seeded Bolingbrook (32-4), which squeezed past Romeoville 25-17, 24-26, 25-23 in the Lincoln-Way West Regional, on Monday in the second semifinal of the Lockport Sectional.

The Porters (26-11), who defeated Joliet West 25-16, 25-9 last year and 25-15, 14-25, 30-28 in the regional title match in 2019, were bidding for their fourth straight regional title (there was no postseason in 2020), but fell short.

It looked like the third set would go down to the wire. There were six ties through 17-17. But ahead 19-18, Grevengoed smacked a kill to start a match-ending 6-0 run. Piazza, who had a block for point 22, pounded her match-high 11th kill off a fingertip for the regional winner.

“We just knew toward the end that we wanted it, and it was a good outcome,” Piazza said. “It’s our first regional title in six years, and it’s everything we worked for.”

Piazza added four aces, while Grevengoeld had eight digs and three aces to go along with her 10 kills. The Tigers had a dozen aces in the match, with sophomore setter Taylor Brenczewski (12 assists, 10 digs) also adding three of them.

“We do lots of stuff with serving in practice,” Piazza said. “We’ve just been working on being consistent with them. Plus, in the last couple of matches, our defense has picked up everything.”

For first-year Joliet West coach Chris Lincoln, the victory was a culmination of all the hard work the team put in this season.

“It’s very exciting and it just feels great,” he said. “I came in and I wanted to set a good culture. The fight in this team was incredible. We’ve talked about that all year, talked about facing adversity and seeing how we react. There are life lessons there too.

“It’s the girls. They all work hard and we feed off each other. I’m so proud of how far we’ve come this season.”

Setter Ashlyn Noon, one of only two senior starters for Joliet West, added 16 assists and 10 digs. Junior opposite side hitter Natalia Harris had four kills, junior middle blocker Peyton Darguzis deposited four blocks, junior libero Olivia Baxter had 16 digs, and junior defensive specialist Isabella Nelson added nine digs for the Tigers.

Joliet West had a 9-1 run in the first set to take a 13-6 lead. But the Porters came back to tie it at 17-17. Five more ties followed through 22-22. Then junior opposite side hitter Kylee Schurig (4 kills) had a kill, and Lockport benefited from an overruled call for the 24th point. A return into the net gave the Porters the opener.

But the Tigers never trailed in the second set. Ahead 6-5, Piazza had a trio of kills in a 10-2 blitz for a 16-7 lead, and Joliet West led by as many as 11 points in coasting to force a third set.

“The first set didn’t go our way,” Grevengoed said. “But in the second set, we felt it. We knew we had to work our butts off.”

Behind a pair of kills from senior opposite side hitter Aleksa Simkus (7 kills) and a pair of aces from junior setter Lainey Green (12 assists), Lockport got off to a 5-0 lead in the third set. But the Tigers rallied for a 12-10 lead, then pulled away at the end.

Senior outside hitter Grace Juergens (7 kills), junior outside hitter Megan Consigny (3 kills, block), and junior libero Payton Malinoski (12 digs) also contributed for the Porters.

“We got up 5-0 in the third set and I thought if we could have got a couple of more points, it would have been big,” Lockport coach Nick Mraz said. “But [the Tigers] started coming right back. At 17-17, there were a couple of big moments and they capitalized.

“They played very well. They got us out of system on the serves. They deserved it.”

The last time the Tigers won a regional championship in 2016, it was also with a rally over Lockport by the score of 19-25, 25-20, 25-22. That was the Tigers’ second straight regional title – and this one has the feeling that it could be the start of something.

“We’ve been working very hard,” Piazza said. “It gets the expectations of our program up.”