Girls volleyball: Metea Valley’s Candela dives ‘all over the place’ in her loud libero role

Metea Valley libero Caroline Candela sometimes gets lost in the crowd, especially when she’s surrounded by taller hitters.

A 5-foot-2 junior, Candela is often heard before she’s seen.

“I just like to rule the court, be really loud, aggressive and go for anything that I really can,” she said.

Candela, a varsity rookie who is splitting the libero duties with senior Sienna Bialek, has excelled on defense for the Mustangs (11-14), setting an example for her teammates.

“She’s awesome,” Metea Valley coach Dave Macdonald said. “You talk about certain volleyball players that just have no care for their bodies, essentially, when they’re playing defense. She’s all over the place.

“She’s going to go for every ball, and your defense trusts her and your hitters trust her that she’s going to get it up. That’s where it’s been a blessing.”

Junior outside hitter Ishana Harish is one of the Mustangs who have been impressed with Candela’s play.

“Her energy is just the best on the court, and she lights up all her teammates,” Harish said. “She always is the loudest person.

“After every point, she always has the most energy. Whether we lose a point or get a point, she brings us back up.”

During the Mustangs’ 25-11, 27-25 loss at Downers Grove North on Wednesday, Candela used the break between sets to exhort her teammates to make sure the second set would be different.

“(We needed) just to be so much louder,” Candela said. “I feel like we came into the first set super quiet.

“I told the team in the huddle to be really aggressive next set — come in firing, not to be down that we lost the first set. You don’t want to basically come into the second set with a losing mentality after losing the first set.”

The Mustangs showed a winning mentality. Harish had a kill and a block, and senior defensive specialist Inaaya Hashwani followed with an ace to tie it at 3-3.

Candela, who finished with nine digs, three service points and an ace, served three straight points to give the Mustangs a 7-3 lead and continued her tireless defense throughout the set.

“That’s been really important for us because I feel like she helps with our communication,” Harish said. “I know we struggled a lot in the beginning, but she brings us together, and I feel like we’re a lot louder with her on the court.”

The loss was the fifth straight for the Mustangs, who have endured an inconsistent season. The second set against Downers Grove North (14-5) was a microcosm of that. They blew an early four-point lead, fell behind twice by four points but rallied each time and tied the game.

“We have a ton of younger players,” Candela said. “We started off on a winning mentality, but we’ve been in this kind of rut for a little while where we just can’t finish off a game.

“It’s not like we play bad every time, but it’s like we just can’t finish.”

But Candela will never stop trying, whether people see it or not.

“Caroline has been playing awesome,” Macdonald said. “Everyone wants to hit and serve, but no one wants to do the gritty stuff of playing defense. She thrives on it.

“She’s been playing with a taped finger for so long because she broke her nail, then it was falling off. But she’s diving all over the place in practice, and nails are flying everywhere.”

Candela won’t have it any other way.

“I love defense and serve receive,” she said. “It’s so fun. I got into being a libero obviously because I’m on the shorter side. Every time we play a big-hitting team, I get so excited.”

Candela was involved in gymnastics in elementary school and played basketball until eighth grade. But she found her greatest joy when she began playing volleyball in seventh grade.

“I love all my teammates,” she said. “That aspect of volleyball is so fun to me, where a team can come together and play as one.”

Candela said she wants to keep getting better and play volleyball for as long as she can. That sounds good to Macdonald.

“She has that next level of consistency, which is awesome and what you need, especially when you get this deep into the season,” Macdonald said. “Hopefully she continues to improve.”