Lemont Turns Back Tinley's Upset Hopes

Tinley Park may not be quite in the class of Lemont in terms of volleyball programs just yet, but the Titans are making some strides.

Lemont's Indians, who have qualified for three consecutive sectional berths, traveled to Tinley Park on Tuesday night and came away with a 25-13, 25-18 victory to improve to 18-7 on the season and 8-0 in the South Suburban Conference.

But the Titans, under the guidance of second-year head coach Lee Rucinski, made the visitors work for the victory. One of the biggest keys, according to their coach, is that they no longer fear playing against top-notch programs such as Lemont.

"We definitely held our own tonight," Rucinski said. "That's the way it's been going for the past week. We played Oak Forest tough last week and we played Illiana Christian real tough on Saturday. We can play. I'm changing the culture slowly."

Lemont, meanwhile, has been strong for a while now, and this year they're paced by the powerful hitting of outside hitter Courtney Keefe and the steady play of four-year varsity player Vicki Wrobel, who runs the offense.

With Wrobel spreading the ball around on Tuesday, Keefe, Danielle Susz and Becca Brabec each had six kills. Wrobel finished with 21 assists.

"It's not our best, but I think we still played well," said Wrobel, whose strong serves led to an ace and an easy rejection by Brabec of a low return of serve late in Game 1. "We worked the ball and the passes were good, so I set a bunch of people."

The Indians jumped ahead 6-1 in Game 2 behind a pair of Susz kills. Danielle Stec helped the home team battle back as she rifled off three aces, as the Titans (7-18) drew even at 6-6 and the match was tied again at 10-10 before the Indians eventually finished off the sweep.

"Our team is on a roller coaster all the time," said Stec, who finished the night with eight service points and a kill to go with the three aces. "We'll play really well, and then we'll get down on ourselves at times. We just have to like get it together."

Titans setter Callie Nolan had 10 assists and Kayla Furjanic led with three kills, but Lemont was just too tough on this night.

Wrobel believes the Indians' extra work in the gym may just make a difference when it comes to trying to advance beyond the sectional round. In each of the last three years, Lemont has fallen to state powers St. Francis or Joliet Catholic in the sectionals.

"We're working to get better and to be the best that we can be," she said. "I think we're really giving it a good effort to get as far as we can."