's girls volleyball team could have been a little disinterested Thursday a day after an emotional, three-set loss to mighty Joliet Catholic.
However, the Indians had other things on their mind, including a successful defense of their Southwest Prairie Conference championship.
The Indians started their title defense with a solid, 25-17, 25-18 league victory at Plainfield Central.
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The play of outside hitters, senior Stacey Perinar and sophomore Skyler Day, and a host of Wildcats errors paved the way for ’s 37th league win over the last three seasons.
Perinar (11 kills) and Day (seven) combined for 18 kills.
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“We missed a lot of serves yesterday,” Perinar said. “Today, we needed to work on a few things and improve on a few things and I think we did.”
“We played better all around tonight,” coach Chris Hoelscher said.
A hitting error by (1-2, 1-0 in the SPC) allowed Plainfield Central (2-4, 0-1) to take a 12-10 lead in Game 1.
“We had one rotation we had trouble with,” Hoelscher said. “Joliet Catholic scored 13 straight that way the night before. When we started to see trouble, we called time out and made them aware of what they needed to do. That helped.”
So did a set play to Perinar and four straight Plainfield Central errors, which turned the tide. Brittany Furjanic served all four points.
Bri Marquez, who led the Indians with 16 assists, served four straight points, the last coming on one of her four aces, to give the visitors a 6-2 lead in Game 2.
Perinar got in on the act, serving three straight points to give a 9-5 lead on an ace.
The Wildcats did not quit. Elizabeth Hyland’s kill from Taryn Trubich cut the Indians lead to 15-14.
After a time out, Perinar’s kill sent on its way.
Haley Bowden’s six digs led the Indians’ defense.
Dana Peterson had eight digs to lead Plainfield Central. Erin Hyland came up with three kills, five block assists and five serving points. Trubich also had three kills and a team-best 10 assists, while Elizabeth Hyland came up with five service points.
