Geneva rebounds to win decisively

The Geneva uprising was turned into an all-out revolution Tuesday night in St. Charles.

The Vikings, seeking to extend their season-long girls volleyball winning streak to 12 matches, were victimized by St. Charles North with a first-game opening run of 20-9.

Geneva rallied, closing to within 2 points, only to fall short.

But the momentum had clearly shifted, and the Vikings' resilience against a relatively youthful St. Charles North team manifested itself in the form of Geneva scoring 62 of the last 92 points in its 21-25, 25-13, 25-14 Upstate Eight Conference River victory.

"We knew that we wanted to stay undefeated," said Geneva star sophomore Grace Loberg, who had match highs of 12 kills, 17 digs and 3 aces. "We had to at least get it close (in the opening set). We knew that we could push through it."

In a most unusual of situations, the three games did feature a single tie.

Geneva (12-0, 3-0) opened the second game with a 10-1 run as Loberg had back-to-back aces to accentuate the first point of the game - a blistering cross-court kill.

The Vikings' size along the front line gradually told the difference.

Hannah Lanasa and Alexandria Mullen complemented Loberg brilliantly, and Kelsey Wicinski, who had 15 digs, orchestrated the Vikings' attack.

"Volleyball is a game of momentum," first-year Geneva coach Annie Seitelman said.

"It is also a game of mistakes," St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said.

"Even though we didn't get the end result that we wanted (in the first game), the tenacity they showed ... led us into the second set," Seitelman said.

St. Charles North (9-3, 2-1) had a run of its own midway thought the second game; Daley Krage had a kill to narrow the North Stars' deficit to 13-8.

But the North Stars would come no closer as Geneva forced a third-set tiebreaker behind Loberg, who had three consecutive kills to give the Vikings a 19-9 lead.

Wicinski had an ace for the Vikings' penultimate point of the set, and Allyson Barrett closed out the North Stars one sideout later.

Barrett had back-to-back kills to jump-start the Vikings in the third game, which featured Geneva executing on a regular basis while the North Stars were unhinged by critical service mistakes.

Loberg had her final ace to give Geneva match point; Mullen and Hannah Lanasa collaborated on a block to polish off the North Stars.

"We stopped doing what the game plan was," Hawkins said. "We're young. There is a lot of inexperience out there."

Barrett (8), Madilynn Courter (6) and Mullen (5) combined for 19 kills for the Vikings.

Mikayla Lanasa had a match-high 21 assists for Geneva.

Jaclyn Taylor had 5 of her team-best 7 kills in the opening game to spearhead the North Stars' first-game win.

"We were trying to get the momentum back after the first set," Taylor said. "We were focusing on our side of the net, so we could get our own points."

Claire Anderson had 6 kills for St. Charles North, and Krage finished with four.