Getting off to a good start is never a bad thing.
Lowell proved that with sizzling starts in two of its three games Thursday night, sweeping Kankakee Valley 25-11, 25-22, 25-17 in the teams’ Northwest Crossroads Conference opener.
But Lowell coach Dana Radtke hopes the win helps propel the Red Devils to something next Tuesday they haven’t done in five years and that’s beat Munster, the four-time defending NCC champs.
The Mustangs haven’t lost in conference action since back-to-back losses to Lowell and Andrean in 2011. Munster has managed 57 straight wins.
Radtke believes experienced seniors Jordin Page, Meagan Fitzgerald, Alexandria Collins and Joselyne Bobos are ready to lead Lowell back to the days when sectional titles and conference championships were the norm.
“With these four seniors, it’s definitely possible,” Radtke said. “We’re playing strong, our serve receive is looking good.
“But we’ll get a whole difference challenge from Munster. Our seniors had good net play (Thursday). We’ll have a good match if we can keep that up.”
Page led the Red Devils (7-1, 1-0) with 13 kills. Collins had 19 assists. Fitzgerald had four kills, four aces and four solo blocks. Bobos added three aces. Haley Penman contributed 11 assists.
“We talked to them about focusing on the first five points when we got out there,” Radtke said of her team’s good starts. “We wanted to start off clean.”
With the score tied 3-3 in Game 3, Page rolled off nine points — including four of her team-high six aces — to put Lowell in a great position.
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That was disappointing to KV coach Greg Welch, who watched his Kougars (2-6, 0-1) battle hard in Game 2.
Welch said KV has all the ability in the world, but lacks the passion needed to succeed right now.
“We need to work on the intensity and the emotion and bringing that to every match,” he said. “That’s the big thing right now. We’ve got seven seniors and were sectional champs last year and want to go further this year.”
Last season, the Kougars won the school’s first sectional title in 11 years by knocking off Griffith.
Ryan Haskell is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.