Girls volleyball: Glenbard West opens season on right foot
Marin Johnson whiffed on a shot attempt, cupped her hand around her face and gave a sheepish grin. And then proceeded to smash her next shot for a point.
She indeed had the best of both worlds Monday.
Johnson and Glenbard West completely dominated the first set of its season-opening match at Yorkville. Then the Hilltoppers held on for dear life in the second, fighting off one set point for a 25-8, 26-24 win.
Surprisingly, Johnson said she enjoyed the tense finish better than the breeze of the beginning.
"I mean, I don't love it that way, but it's fun to play when it's tight and it's a good game," Johnson said with a smile. "The way we played that first set, that's fun too."
Glenbard West looks like it's in for a lot of fun this season.
The Hilltoppers return seven players from a team that won 26 matches and a regional championship last season. Johnson, a 6-foot-2 junior outside and third-year varsity player, is a ringleader of that group and showed it Monday with a match-high 10 kills. Glenbard West won the York Summer League and carried it right over into the first match.
"I think we're going places," Johnson said. "I think we're going to be better than last year and we proved it tonight."
Johnson set the tone early, with five kills accounting for Glenbard West's first 12 points during a 12-1 start that eventually ballooned to 21-4.
First-year Glenbard West head coach Dan Scott, an assistant in the program for the past 17 years, thinks the best is yet to come.
"I think she is a star in the making," Scott said of Johnson. "I think it's just a matter of her realizing how good she can be and putting the mental and physical together. I watch that kid and she reminds me of Natalie Schilling from 2015 who went to Duke on a scholarship and led us to second in state. Every day in practice I have flashbacks."
If the Hilltoppers thought they'd make short of Yorkville, though, the Foxes had other ideas.
Yorkville, which graduated the majority of the core of a 31-win conference and regional champion, made a lineup shuffle in the second set, sharpened its passing and had the score knotted at 16-16 midway through on a kill by Gabi Mays.
Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the way, and Yorkville got to set point up 24-23 on a crosscourt kill by Clare Knoll.
"We showed some resilience and grit, and a willingness to respond in situations we put ourselves in," Yorkville coach Lisa Molek said. "We are still trying to figure out where people are going to belong in the lineup and what roles they will fit in."
The role of a leader will certainly be played by senior Keelyn Muell, a key part of last year's group that won the program's first regional since 2007. She'll be a setter and right-side on this team, which isn't altogether new.
"It's an adjustment for her at the high school level but she's used to that role from club," Molek said, "and I think she feels comfortable in that role."
Glenbard West looked comfortable enough in a rare moment behind. Down 24-23, Ivy Toth gave the Hilltoppers back serve with a tip kill, and Avery Herbert drilled her eighth kill to set up match point which Lindsety Street delivered with a block.
"We all showed grit and we were able to come together for the final push," Johnson said. "We lost to them last year so we wanted to get this win."
Breccan Scheck had four kills, Haydon Green 26 assists and seven digs and Johnson five digs for Glenbard West.
Muell had two kills and 12 assists, Knoll seven kills, Mays four kills, Charlee Young three kills and four digs and Elle Norquist six digs for Yorkville.
"It was a tale of two sets," Scott said. "The first set we were on fire, everybody was playing well, we took over and didn't give them an inch and second set we missed six serves and had a few defensive lapses and all of a sudden the other team got confidence. Credit to them, they fought back, they have some really good players that play on a high-level club and they're well-coached. We knew it would be a good match."