For Oak Lawn junior Daphne Fortner, January brought more than just a fresh start to a new year.
It also brought a fresh start to her volleyball career.
Actually, it was more of a fresh challenge when Spartans coach Kathleen Miller told the 5-foot-10 middle hitter she was going to switch to the outside.
Scary? You bet.
“It was definitely scary from the passing aspect,” Fortner said. “And serve receiving is difficult to master. I’m still not there, but I’m working on it.”
She was all the way there with her hitting Thursday night in a 25-16, 25-14 South Suburban Red victory over visiting Reavis.
Fortner finished with a team-leading seven kills for Oak Lawn (17-11, 8-4). Dahlia Campos added six kills, while Aubrey Anderson
More Top Picks Best Dual Coffee Makers
contributed five kills and six digs, Angelica Ziaja served for four aces and Sara Nassar had 10 assists.Miya Jordan paced Reavis (7-16, 3-7) with two kills. Quetzalli Pichardo-Aich added two aces.
Fortner, meanwhile, is having a breakout season. She leads the Spartans with 204 kills and is one of the team’s top servers with 34 aces.
“Hitting from the outside is just overall exciting,” Fortner said. “When coach told me about it, I was surprised a little bit. I didn’t have any expectations, but I wanted it to happen.”
Miller is looking like a genius for the move.
“When I told her about it in January, she was all for it,” Miller said. “She was really, really excited and she has embraced it. She likes getting the ball.
“Daphne likes working on new skills and that’s a really good quality to have. She has a fiery personality on and off the court. She loves volleyball and it’s evident when she plays.”
And look out when she — or a teammate — does something really well.
“She’s typically the loudest one in the gym,” Miller said. “The gym echoes. She’s not shy about letting her true personality come out and just have fun. We get along very well, because I feel we are similar in some ways.
“She’s a good sort of stubborn in that she’s going to stick with something until she gets it. It’s also great that she communicates about what she’s thinking. There is never any question about it.”
Anderson, who basically traded positions with Fortner, has the closest connection. Off the court, Anderson and Fortner are best friends.
“I was very excited and happy to make the switch with her,” Anderson said. “We’ve developed a great chemistry between us at the net.”
The enthusiasm has been contagious.
“Oh, Daphne knows how to celebrate,” Anderson said, smiling. “Even when the team is down, she knows how to keep everybody up.
“When she’s struggling a little, she doesn’t let it get into her head. She knows what she did wrong and she knows how to fix it.”
Fortner did some pretty fancy fixing in Thursday’s match. Oak Lawn trailed Reavis 16-14 in the first game when she contributed three kills during an 11-0 run that also featured two aces by Anderson.
There was simply no stopping her. Nor the celebrations.
Keeping calm? She leaves that up to her mom. Dana Fortner is a yoga instructor. She gives yoga lessons to the team once a week.
“She’s a really good yoga teacher,” Daphne said. “I love it. She’ll come in after practices on Friday and do some deals with us. We’ll do lengthening, stretching and a little bit of core work.
“I think that it really helps us decompress after a long week of play and gets us ready for the next.”
Tony Baranek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
More Top Picks Sump Pumps