Coaches preach it to their players all the time.

Lincoln-Way East’s Alaina Pollard did some preaching to herself as a junior this year when she decided gym class wasn’t going to cut it. She hit the weight room for a Human Performance class.

“Honestly, it was just the motivation to be better on the court and for my team and myself as an overall person,” Pollard said. “I think I’m really improving and I feel it’s all coming together.

“It all starts in weight room.”

The Indiana recruit certainly carried her weight and then some Thursday night for the Griffins in a 25-17, 25-23 SouthWest Suburban Conference victory over host Lincoln-Way West in New Lenox.

Pollard led Lincoln-Way East (19-3, 5-0) with nine kills. Saint Louis recruit Tamia Maddox added seven kills, while Brooklyn Ritter contributed 12 assists and five digs, Maggie Simon had 13 assists and Stella Drozd made 11 digs.

Lily Goyer had five kills for Lincoln-Way West (18-10, 4-2). Caroline Smith added three kills, with Claire Murphy contributing 12 assists and Laney Tuttle making seven digs.

Pollard showed the power of being a winner in the weight room against the Warriors.

The 6-foot right-side hitter was an absolute dominator at the start of the match. Of the first eight points for Lincoln-Way East, five came on Pollard’s kills.

They came in a variety of ways, from an opening push to the back line to a follow-up straight down blast to another kill through a double block.

Lincoln-Way East coach Sean Burns moved Pollard from her natural position in the middle to the right side this season, and he hasn’t regretted it.

“I put her there because she gives us another option on the pin,” Burns said. “And we want her going up against other teams’ No. 1 outside, and she’s been doing a good job.”

Pollard leads the Griffins with 156 kills. She’s among team leaders with 27 blocks. She was also one of the first volleyball players to join the Human Performance class. But others soon followed.

“I love the teacher in that class… Coach (Raymond) Hines, he’s the best,” Pollard said. “We mostly just weight lift. Mondays are leg days. Tuesday and Wednesday we do upper body. Thursday we do whole body, and Fridays we do yoga.

“We work super hard in that class, and I know it transfers over to the court with my vertical, my strength and my overall body wellness.”

Pollard runs with a solid hitting crowd for the Griffins. Maddox isn’t far behind her with 131 kills, while freshman outside hitter Kolby Ross has 107.

Maddox also has seen Pollard’s leadership grow.

“She has made such an improvement from last season to this season,” Maddox said. “Overall, she’s just such a key part of the team, someone you can count on put the ball away when we’re down.

“She’s consistent and she can be that person, that hero, when you need her to be.”

The position change went smoothly from where Simon sees it.

“I think she’s a natural pin hitter,” Simon said. “To transfer from the middle to the right side is a hard thing to do, and she has done it very well.

“I trust her everywhere on the court. I can go to her any time. Even when I go off the floor, I can float it back to her and she can finish it out. We connect very well.”

Maddox isn’t just fit as a fiddle. She can play one. Well, a violin, anyway.

“Yeah, I used to be an artsy kind of kid until I decided to play volleyball in sixth grade,” Maddox said, laughing. “I played in some concerts when I was younger, mostly in middle school.

“I still have one. I can still play.”

On chord, and even better on the court.

Tony Baranek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.