For 29 years,
Thomas Malesky was the head volleyball coach at Morton College. During that run, Malesky led the Panthers to 403 wins from 1990-2018. When Morton decided to part ways with Malesky, Triton was quick to pursue Malesky to help rebuild the program. In his first two seasons in River Grove, the team has improved immensely, including the Trojans making their first Region 4 championship game appearance since 2004 last season.
However, since coming to Triton, Malesky has not faced his former school, which made the 2021 season opener August 25 at Morton more intriguing.
When the dust settled, it was a happy return to Cicero for Malesky and the Trojans who took care of the Panthers in four-sets: 25-19, 25-22, 14-25, 25-20.
"It was so much different going back to Morton as a visitor," Malesky said. One, the facilities have changed which made me feel more like a visitor. It was great to see some of the people I knew from my time there. But it was a special feeling to win this game, actually it felt quite good."
Triton controlled the match with some excellent play from outside hitters
Bailey Berger and
Tanya DeLaRiva who combined for 24 kills.
Delanecia Walker, who transferred from Morton, enjoyed the homecoming as well with eight kills. Walker also had a strong game in the middle for the Trojans with a pair of blocks.
The Trojans serve-receive game was outstanding as Triton committed just only four service errors.
The outcome was a pleasant surprise for the veteran head coach as based on the previous day practice Malesky thought his team was in for a long evening.
"We had a very bad practice the day before and thought we've be lucky score 10 points a set on them," said Malesky. Even our warm-up was not great. Nevertheless, when the lights came on, the team came to play and it was a great win to start the season."
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