Throughout the volleyball season so far, the focus of Lockport‘s offense has been outside hitter Bridget Ferriter.

Thursday night, in the Class 4A Lincoln-Way Central Regional, Plainfield North paid most of its defensive attention to Ferriter. The problem for the Tigers was that it left opposite hitter Hutsyn Timosciek alone against a single block.

Timosciek used that to her, and the Porters’, advantage, as she collected a team-leading 10 kills in a 25-19, 25-20 win that secured a third straight regional title for Lockport, which finished third in Class 4A last season.

“I saw a lot of single blocks tonight,” Timosciek said. “We have a lot of good hitters, and if a team tries to take one away, that means the rest will have good matchups.

“I got good sets tonight, and when I didn’t have a single block, I had my teammates telling me where to hit it.”

Timosciek also had three blocks, while teammate Sara McGraw had four. Ferriter had four kills, Malia Cole had three, Emma Consigny had eight digs and two aces and Natalie Bonchantin had 14 assists.

The Porters (30-7), who will play Waubonsie Valley on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the Joliet West Sectional, jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first set, getting three aces by Ferriter and one by Bonchantin in the stretch. Plainfield North (12-13) charged back to get to within 19-16, using five kills from Lindey Balsano and three from Kayla Overbeek to spur the comeback. Lockport, though, got back-to-back kills from Timosciek and a North hitting error to take control. The set ended on a kill by Ferriter.

“Our girls never got down on themselves,” Plainfield North coach Matt Slechta said. “They’ve been that way all year. Resilient is a good word to describe this team. We got behind a lot early, but we kept battling and got back in it.

“We didn’t make adjustments fast enough tonight, and we made a lot of serving and attack errors. We cleaned those up in the second set, which was good to see. This is a young team, and this will be good experience for them.”

The Tigers got out quickly in the second set, taking a 4-1 lead as both Balsano and Rylee Richards had an ace. Lockport got three kills from Timosciek, a kill and an ace by Mikayla Marshall and a kill each by McGraw and Ferriter in a 13-6 run that gave them a 14-10 lead. Timosciek sandwiched a pair of kills around a block to put the Porters up 18-11. North got three kills from Balsano and a free-ball kill by Sophie Stahl to draw to within 20-18, but couldn’t get any closer. The match ended with an ace by Marshall.

“Hutsyn had a very nice night,” Lockport coach Nick Mraz said. “She took 21 swings, had 10 kills and only one error. They were kind of camping on Bridget, so that left Hutsyn alone. She is a very nice option to have. If we can keep getting 14 kills from her and Bridget, no matter how they are split up, we will take that.

“We did a good job of keeping the pressure on, and our blocking was very good. We had a lot of great touches at the net. We’re playing well at the right time, which is good to see. These girls have tasted state last year, and they want to get back. This is the first step.”