Batavia adjusts, blocks Rosary

It looked like Batavia’s girls volleyball team flipped a switch for the deciding third game with Rosary on Thursday night, suddenly blocking the ball so consistently the Royals couldn’t get much past the net.

Turns out Rosary’s power combo of Amelia Wegman and Brianna Flagg forced a Batavia adjustment that couldn’t have worked better for the Bulldogs.

After recording no block kills in either of the first two games, Batavia stuffed Rosary nine times in the final game of its 25-21, 15-25, 25-22 victory on Pack the Place night at Batavia.

“Flagg and Wegman swing so good,” Batavia’s senior captain Mary Nilles said. “We had to adjust our block. (Coach Lori) Trippi (Payne) called it. Good call.”

Nilles had 3 of those blocks, as did Kristen Koncelik. Kaytlin St. Clair, Jess Hartman and Anysa Ocon each had one.

Batavia (12-6) never trailed in the third game but saw an 18-11 lead sliced to 21-20 on a kill from Jennifer Hewitt. After Batavia’s Heather Meyer answered with a kill, back-to-back blocks from Nilles and Koncelik took Batavia to match point. The Bulldogs sealed the win three points later on the Royals’ seventh service error.

Rosary (9-5) had rebounded from the Game 1 loss behind Wegman’s 9 kills in Game 2.

“We made a couple adjustments on our block and it worked,” Trippi-Payne said. “That’s what this level is about. Can your kids make those adjustments on the fly? Something we didn’t practice yesterday? And they did. We had some kids step up in the third game.”

Batavia also stayed aggressive, learning from earlier Game 3 losses like St. Charles North when the team got tentative.

“Our goal is to swing aggressive,” said Nilles, who topped both teams with 21 assists, hustling all over the court in Game 2 to keep balls alive when Batavia’s serve-receive game struggled. “Sometimes we are a little timid and play not to lose. I think especially in Game 3 we were swinging hard and tried to keep them on their heels.”

Hartmann stepped up early with five kills in the first game. She and Meyer, another sophomore, led Batavia with 9 and 6 kills, respectively.

“We did some neat things offensively, moved the ball around a lot,” Trippi-Payne said. “We had to play tremendously to beat them.

“The whole team did a lot of things I haven’t seen in a game yet. They weren’t intimidated by Rosary.”

Wegman led both teams with 13 kills. Flagg added 7 kills, Katie Baki had 9 digs, 6 points and 2 aces, and Abby Konovodoff had 17 assists for the Royals, who played their fifth match in the last four days.

“They are teenagers, they should have more energy,” Rosary coach Lisa Kasper said. “Just too many mistakes. That’s how it’s been all season. When we lose we shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Rosary returns to the championship flight of the Wheaton Warrenville South Tournament at 1 p.m. Saturday against Hinsdale Central and will play either Naperville North or Benet in its second game.