Three years ago, Lake Central’s Brianne Salinas looked around the room.
Her mind flashed to the future.
“I knew our senior year was going to be amazing,” she said. “I couldn’t wait for it.”
Teammate Mila Petkovic had a similar notion.
“We had so much talent,” she said. “We just didn’t know how to use it.”
They were right. Part of a large group of freshmen at the time, Salinas and Petkovic are among the seniors who have become the backbone of Lake Central’s most successful team.
The deepest postseason run in program history continues Saturday, when the Indians (29-9) will play Hamilton Southeastern (32-1) in the Class 4A Frankfort Semistate.
But even Salinas, who will play for Division II Malone in Ohio next year, said she couldn’t have envisioned a season quite like this.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this good,” she said.
This group of seniors had its share of growing pains and difficult circumstances, such as the early postseason exit in 2020 when COVID-19 exposure decimated its lineup hours before a match.
“I couldn’t imagine how the seniors felt on that day,” Salinas said. “We all learned not to take any of this for granted.”
Lake Central was eliminated by Munster in the sectional semifinals last season, and it wasn’t until the team gathered for summer workouts that it dawned on Petkovic. Their time had arrived.
“Once summer conditioning started, they kept referring to us as the seniors, and I saw how many of us there were,” Petkovic said. “That’s when it started to hit me that we’re the leaders of the program now. We’re the ones that have to take this season far.”
Like Salinas and Petkovic, the other seniors who fill out the roster are primarily in hitting roles, whether on the outside, in the middle or on the right. The top six players in kills are all seniors: Katia Nikolic (306), Petkovic (229), Katelyn Ruse (213), Salinas (187), Jacey Graham (162) and Leah Lindborg (81).
The 5-foot-11 Petkovic and the 6-0 Salinas also affect opposing hitters. Petkovic leads the team with 32 blocks, and Salinas is third with 23.
Having such a large group of players who have been together for four seasons and play similar roles provides a few benefits for Lake Central.
First, there’s a healthy competition among the classmates that brings the best out of each student-athlete without subtracting from the team performance, according to Petkovic.
“In practice, we’re competitive with each other,” she said. “But all the hitters are so supportive of each other too. It doesn’t matter who gets the kill. We’re always so happy for one another.”
Each kill attempt also is the result of a group effort, according to Salinas.
“We’re always helping each other out,” she said. “Sometimes you can’t tell if you’re getting trapped in a spot because of the block, so we’ll tell each other what’s open or where they need to hit the ball. And if you tell someone what’s open and they get the kill, it boosts everyone up.”
Salinas and Petkovic play in the middle, which opens space for attackers on the outside like Nikolic. Likewise, Nikolic’s outside attacks open space in the middle for Salinas and Petkovic. It’s a circular strategy that makes game-planning against Lake Central a nightmare, according to coach Naveed Nizam.
“We can attack from anywhere,” Nizam said. “We don’t have one main scorer like most teams do. It’s hard to scout us and know where we’re going to attack, and those two are a key part of that.”
Both Salinas and Petkovic beamed as they talked about their experiences during this postseason run, from storming the court after winning the sectional and regional titles to attending the impromptu team parties that were planned minutes after each victory.
It’s a ride they hope to continue beyond Saturday, drawing confidence from a regular-season schedule that featured difficult opponents from all over Indiana and even Illinois.
“I feel confident that if we play how we’ve been playing, that we can make it to state,” Petkovic said.
Salinas agrees.
“As long as we play our best game and control what we can control, I just feel very confident in my team’s abilities,” Salinas said.
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
