Batavia waits, then rolls Metea Valley
The wait -- both of them -- was worth it for Batavia.
The first wait the Bulldogs knew was coming, an 8-day break between their last regular season match and Thursday's night's 25-12, 25-12 victory over Metea Valley in the Class 4A Geneva regional semifinals.
The second wait came with the amount of time the Bulldogs spent in Geneva's gym Thursday night, starting with Metea Valley's 3-game win over Glenbard East and then Geneva's 3-game win over Wheaton North.
When Stephanie Kinane finally served the first point of the match, it was 9:04 p.m. of a match schedule to start at 7:30.
“Our schedule was goofy,” Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne said. “That long layoff, I don't think we skipped a beat today. We still looked like the same team.”
About the only time third-seed Batavia (31-5) didn't look like a 30-win team came in the first part of the first game when No. 14 Metea Valley (16-15) built a 12-8 lead. Jessica Body and Brianne Honda both had a pair of kills for the Mustangs in that stretch.
“I figured we might come out slow after sitting that long and give Metea credit,” Trippi-Payne said. “They had seen us on Oct. 7 and they went after us pretty good. They found some of our weak areas and did a good job at the beginning of the game. We settled down and started serving to zones which we were missing at the beginning of the game and that set up our block better.”
Nobody served better than Kinane. Stepping to the line with Batavia trailing 12-9, Kinane served the final 16 points of Game 1 as the Bulldogs ended it on a 17-0 run.
“That has been our Achilles' heel all year,” Metea Valley coach James Milkert said. “We don't give up little runs, we give up big runs. We just struggle to find the inner strength of confidence to stop those things from happing.”
Kinane helped herself with three aces off her float serve, then watched as Batavia's block and attack came alive to win point after point. Right side Mary Niles and middle Kristen Koncelik led the strong play at the net with 4 and 3 kills, respectively.
“My front row helped out too and our defense,” Kinane said. “I wouldn't be able to keep on serving without them.
“It (the long wait) was a bit hard but I thought we handled it well. We started a little slow but we got motivated.”
Kinane served 3 more points in Game 2 before the Mustangs finally won a sideout ending the junior's string at 19 straight points won.
Caitlin Piechota got the Bulldogs off to a good start in Game 2 serving the first three points. She finished with 8 kills, one behind Koncelik for the team lead. Mary Kate Bryant, who ended the match tipping a ball for a kill, and Niles both set 10 assists. Kinane (7 digs), Piechota (6) and Meghan Fabian (6 digs) led the Bulldogs in kills.
Batavia will play Geneva on Saturday for the regional title, looking to win its first regional since the only other one in school history in 2005.
Metea earned its first postseason win in the first match of the night, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22 over Glenbard East.
“That was a huge win I thought for us,” Milkert said. “Biggest crowd we've played in front of, a tournament game, I thought it was a great response. I'm excited and proud of our mental toughness at times.”