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Sports

Girls Volleyball: Lincoln-Way East Handles Mt. Assisi

Lincoln-Way East 25-26, Mt. Assisi 10-24: Griffins are able to play their entire roster in straight-sets home victory.

There's quite a bit of experience this fall for the Lincoln-Way East girls volleyball team, but there's also a lot of inexperience.

Lincoln-Way East played its home opener on Thursday's night, hosting Mt. Assisi in a non-conference match. The Griffins (2-0) cruised through the opening game, 25-10, and then made sure everyone on the roster played by the time the second game concluded, rallying from deficits of 12-8 and 19-16 to win 26-24.

Senior outside hitter Mykala Weller had a pair of kills and five digs in the opening game and then watched the action during the second game. She was pleased with what she saw from her team.

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"We did pretty well," she said. "We're still getting together as a team and we'll get better throughout the season, but for our first home game, I think we did pretty well."

Weller is one of three seniors on this year's East squad. All three are returning starters, along with junior libero Dana Van Dyck. Junior Marissa DeGroot also played last year, but the remaining six players on the roster are all newcomers, including sophomores Allie Abel, Kayla Currier and Taylor Nirchi.

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"We start some youth, but then we also start some real experience," Lincoln-Way East coach Linda Vivona said. "LB (Lauren Behrens) is a four-year starter, so that's a lot of experience, and Katie Allen and Makayla (Weller) are both three-year starters. So, we don't have a lot of numbers of experience, but get a lot of experience from those girls."

Berhens has committed to St. Peter's College in New Jersey and the 6-foot-3 Allen recently decided to continue to her career next year at Drake University in Iowa.

"I'm really proud of how the team is coming together and connecting more," Allen said. "It feels good for me to be committed, but I still have to work as hard as I can here and want to have a very good senior year."

Nirchi had two aces and 10 assists as she and junior Abby Abel each took the court as setters in a game apiece. Nirchi is one of those newcomers who already is making a strong contribution.

"I thought Taylor (Nirchi) did very well and middle blocker Kayla Currier is going to be a nice ballplayer," Vivona said. "Both of them are up from the freshman team last year."

The Griffins began their second game against Mt. Assisi (1-2) with both Abels in the lineup along with Jessica Lindsey, Sara Buchback, Van Dyck and Allen. They fell behind 4-1 early, but battled back to tie it at 16-all on a kill from Currier.

"We talked about the significance of protecting the court and making sure we're in charge," Vivona said. "We need to dictate the tempo and in the second set we got everyone in but I think some of the girls, who were getting their first experience on varsity, we're a little nervous so it took us a little while to take control."

Lincoln-Way East went ahead 23-20 before Mt. Assisi climbed back to tie it at 24-24. There was no need to panic, though, as the Griffins scored twice to win the game and the match.

"They showed a lot of confidence and composure and pulled it out when it was tight," Vivona said. "It would've been easy to get too nervous and crumble there, but they hung tough and showed some good (togetherness) to get through and persevere."

Allen led the Griffins with seven kills, DeGroot had five service points and Abby Abel had 10 assists.

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