The Eisenhower volleyball team has felt its share of growing pains the last two seasons as the Knights tried to work their way back to the upper tier in Region 3.

Those pains are starting to pay dividends. With a sweep over visiting Iroquois Thursday, Eisenhower picked up its fourth win of 2018, matching the total from 2016 and 2017 combined.

“Every team that makes a run has to go through something to get to where they need to be,” Eisenhower coach Scott Olson said. “The past couple of weeks, we’ve been through a lot as individuals and as a team. We came to the realization that we’re all in this togehter and we want the same thing. Tonight was fun to watch.”

The Knights (4-5 overall, 3-3 Region 3) took down the Braves (0-11, 0-5) 25-11, 25-22 and 25-21.

“I felt like we played the way we are capable of playing in the first game,” Olson said. “There was some letup in games 2 and 3, but we still played well.”

Olson said he saw some passing breakdowns in the final two games that led to the closer scores. He credited the Iroquois servers for forcing the Knights to make more difficult first passes.

“They served a little bit better,” he said. “The first game, we were passing really well and able to run our offense and they weren’t able to stop it.”

Cameran Edwards had five aces, seven kills and 13 digs for the Knights. Currie Hultman added 10 kills, five aces and 21 digs, while Kiara Weber had eight kills and four digs and Caroline Hishman had 25 assists and three aces.

“We played well, played hard and got the win like we were supposed to,” Olson said.

He added that getting a home sweep over a winless opponent, despite some struggles, showed just how far his Knights have grown and matured as a team.

“The expectation is that they’re going to get better,” Olson said. “We feel this is a part of the season where we can make a run. We have four games left and expect to win a few of those and do well at the tournaments.”

Eisenhower’s next dual match is at Girard Oct. 8.

JV: IROQUOIS 2, EISENHOWER 1

Iroquois won the junior varsity match 28-26, 14-25 and 9-15.

Catrina Edwards had 13 digs and two kills, Paige Edwards had 11 digs, two kills and two aces, Bridgette Gourley had nine digs and four kills, and Phoebe Tower and Destiny Nelson each had two kills and two aces.

“The girls had great communication tonight,” Eisenhower assistant coach Fallon Bachman said. “They worked hard to execute their hitting and fought to stay in the game.”