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player ready...It wasn’t in the plan for Providence’s Liam Fowler to wear No. 9, as his brother, Jackson, did.
For the past three seasons, Jackson thrived as a right-side hitter for the Celtics. He’s now playing at Barton. Even though Liam credited Jackson for inspiring to get him involved in volleyball, the sophomore outside hitter wasn’t looking to wear No. 9.
“It was the last uniform left,” Liam said. “I was going for 8, but I got 9.”
Having fun with numbers, if you add eight and nine you get 17 and that’s how many kills Liam had Thursday night in a 25-21, 25-19 nonconference win over Oak Forest in New Lenox.
The 6-foot-6 Fowler produced seven kills in the first game and totaled 10 more in the second to go with two block assists for the Celtics (3-5). He committed just two hitting errors. Jameson So chalked up 19 assists, while Cole Gloss contributed three aces in a tight first game.
Peter Maka led Oak Forest (1-6) with four kills. Jaiden Juachon added two aces.
Providence coach Lee Rucinski, meanwhile, is glad to have another Fowler who wears No. 9 creating mayhem at the net.
“When he got the uniform, he heard everybody say the same thing,” Rucinski said of Liam. “‘Hold on — didn’t your brother wear that?’ The tradition continues.
“Jackson did a phenomenal job in leading us and was an offensive weapon, and you can see his brother is not far behind.”
Liam’s offensive eruption came in handy. The Celtics sputtered last weekend in the Marist Invitational, where junior outside hitter Omar Torreblanca suffered an ankle injury. Torreblanca will be out for a few weeks.
“It was nice to see Liam step up and take over that role with his running partner injured,” Rucinski said. “Seventeen kills is pretty impressive, especially in a two-set match.”
Most of Fowler’s kills were traditional power attacks, but he came up with three tips for kills, plus another from back row. He also caught up with an errant ball and slammed it down with his left hand.
“He does have the full arsenal,” Rucinski said of Fowler. “The lefty shot is not something we work on. But when he brings the thunder a few times, he also has off-speed shots to catch people napping.”
A natural on the volleyball court, Fowler looks like he has played the sport most of his life. But after playing mostly basketball, Liam followed in Jackson’s footsteps and joined the Joliet-based Uno club in eighth grade.
He admitted he was a “project,” but with the help of UNO owner/director Terri Baranski, his game improved quickly.
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“It was a rough start at first,” Fowler said. “But (Baranski) is a great coach who taught me a lot. She is a big factor in where I am today.
“I feel like that year that we worked together helped me out a lot.”
Working nearly nonstop in the gym and with private coaches, Fowler has become an all-around player.
Playing in his first game in the back row, Gloss was impressed with Fowler’s performance on Thursday night.
“He’s a sophomore and a big guy and he had a lot of big kills,” Gloss said of Fowler. “His brother was a big contributor, and he’s the next big contributor for us.”
Now that Fowler is putting up big numbers, he hopes Providence can turn its record around.
“We didn’t do well in the tournament and our outside got hurt and that was a great loss for the team,” he said. “But I feel like we rallied together (against Oak Forest) and pulled out the win.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.