Mistakes Cost Oswego Against Minooka

Mistakes definitely can hurt a team, and if the team can’t rebound from the miscue or miscues, defeat certainly follows.

This was the case Thursday night at Oswego High School as Minooka forced the Panthers (1-7, 1-1) into too many mistakes for them to recover in a 25-13, 25-13 Southwest Prairie Conference triumph for the visitors.

The Indians (8-2, 3-0) quickly ran out to a 4-0 lead in the opening game. Tessa Griparis sparked Minooka with an opening kill and three service points for the early advantage. Within that early run was a hit out of bounds by Oswego’s Shelby Ritsema, a lift by Katy Kennedy and a free ball dig by Brittany Maertzig that led to a cleanup kill by Minooka’s Stacey Perinar.

Later, Perinar served six straight points to balloon the lead to 13-3.

“I feel like we made a lot of mistakes and that’s how they got their points,” Oswego coach Erica Lorenz said. “Not that they did anything fantastic, not that we couldn’t defend it, we just made mistake after mistake after mistake, and we couldn’t pull out from that. It was not a good performance. I am not happy with the outcome.”

That is when Oswego’s Amy Holpuch took over the serve and settled down the Panthers a bit and Minooka made three straight mistakes. After the teams traded side-outs, Maertzig got Oswego to within 13-9, but that’s as close it would come. Griparis had four more kills and Briana Marquez’s ace capped the Game 1 win for the Indians.

“We knew they were good coming out and we also knew that their libero was their best passer,” Holpuch said. “If she passed the ball, they were going to have a kill.”

The second game was tied at 2 and saw Minooka hold a 6-4 edge, before Marquez rattled off eight straight points to up the lead to 14-4. The Panthers saw the ball hit out of bounds, hit the floor and hit the ceiling. Even a timeout by Lorenz couldn’t stem the tide. Oswego went out after the break and was called for four hits.

Holpuch got two points back to cut the lead in half, 14-7, and blocks by Payton Poulter (15-9) and Ritsema (18-12) cut the Minooka lead to six on two occasions. But Minooka slipped away after a side-out and three straight points by Kelli Holstine. Four side-outs followed and then Perinar’s ace ended the match.

“They probably watched Oswego during the warm-up,” Minooka coach Chris Hoelscher said of her Indians taking Oswego out of its game. “They’ve got some big kids, they got some leapers, (and) they got some bangers. The best way to try and take a team out of it is to attack the serve-receive. So, that was our first focus point, to serve aggressively, then to cover and then to keep on attacking.”

Holpuch had five points, five digs and three assists to lead Oswego. Other leaders were Destiny Stuersel (three assists, one kill, two digs, two blocks), Katherine Daley (four kills), Stephanie Coates (two kills, one block), Maertzig (four digs), Poulter (one kill, one dig, one block), Jenny Greenwood (one kill, one block), Kennedy (one ace, nine digs) and Ritsema (one kill, one dig, one block).

Perinar had nine kills and seven points, while Griparis had seven kills and seven points for the Indians. Marquez had nine points and one kill and Brittany Furjanic had five points.

Oswego looks to steady its ship this Saturday at the Yorkville Invitational.

“The girls just need to learn from (the loss) and work what they need to work on at the Yorkville tournament,” Lorenz said. “It is usually good competition. It is a long day for the girls. We will see Streator, Plainfield North and hopefully we’ll see Yorkville again.”

The Panthers hope to avenge a 25-21, 24-26, 19-25 loss to Yorkville.