Carmel senior Isa Swiatkowski knows libero is the best position for her.
She has a simple explanation.
“You get to fly all over the place trying to track down the ball, and you can’t care about your body when you are diving to make a play,” she said.
Swiatkowski has been putting herself on the line as Carmel’s standout passing and digging specialist for the past three seasons.
On Tuesday, she had five digs and three aces and was perfect receiving serves as the fourth-seeded Corsairs swept sixth-seeded Wauconda 25-16, 25-19 in a Class 3A Carmel Regional semifinal.
“Isa doesn’t always have big numbers against teams that know her because they serve and hit away from her,” Carmel coach David Pazely said. “She just does everything so well on the back line because she has a high volleyball IQ.”
A quick first step and a nose for the ball make Swiatkowski particularly effective for the Corsairs (17-19), who will play top-seeded Lakes (23-9) in the regional final at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“She can go from zero to 25 feet in an instant to track down balls,” Pazely said. “Those saves are going to result in a lot of points for us over the course of a season.
“She has meant so much to our team the last three years with her talent and leadership.”
Solid hitting by Bella Lucero, Heather Kintis and Abigail Sullivan enabled the Corsairs to power past Wauconda (13-20) in the first game.
The Bulldogs, led by Drake commit Emily Lisi’s six kills, made things interesting in the second game before Swiatkowski served up five consecutive points to wrap up the match for Carmel.
“We played Wauconda in our first match of the season, so we knew they had some good players, especially No. 9 (Lisi),” Swiatkowski said. “We knew they would make a run at us, but we stayed poised, made some big blocks and kept the match going in our favor.
“That’s something we are going to have to keep doing against a good team like Lakes on Thursday.”
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Against Lakes, Carmel will try to win its first regional title since 2019. The Northern Lake County Conference champion Eagles downed eighth-seeded Cary-Grove 25-9, 25-17 in the other semifinal.
“We beat Carmel earlier in the season (on Aug. 31), but that means nothing at this point in the playoffs,” Lakes coach Sarah Yeager said. “They are a well-coached team that will be ready to play in its own gym.”
Swiatkowski agreed that playing in front of home fans, like the Corsairs did Tuesday, gives them a boost.
“It just gets everyone fired up and ready to play their best,” she said. “That’s when the big plays happen.”
Swiatkowski, a two-time all-conference pick in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, wants to continue making big plays in college.
“I don’t know where yet, but I want to go somewhere down South where it’s warm,” she said. “I love playing volleyball, so I don’t want to quit playing now.
“That’s why our seniors want to keep winning in the playoffs because we don’t want all of this fun to end.”
Swiatkowski thinks Carmel’s schedule got the team ready to make a run. The Corsairs went 0-6 in the rugged ESCC but fared much better outside the conference.
“Our conference has to be one of the toughest in the state with teams like Marist, Benet and Joliet Catholic,” she said. “We actually held our own against a lot of the teams, so that kind of competition really prepared us for the playoffs.”
Darren Day is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.