Geneva learns lesson, beats Batavia
Building a 24-18 lead in the opening game against Batavia, Geneva's volleyball team found itself in a familiar situation Tuesday night.
"At the Mizuno Cup this past weekend, we had a 24-17 lead (over Neuqua Valley) and they came back and beat us that game," said Geneva sophomore outside hitter Grace Loberg. "We were not going to let that happen."
After the Bulldogs (9-18, 4-3) survived 6 straight game points to tie it at 24-all, the Vikings (22-6, 6-1) took a 25-24 lead on a Batavia service error before Loberg's kill ended the opener.
Geneva went on to win the Upstate Eight Conference River Division match 26-24, 25-12 on Pack the Place night in Batavia.
"We knew we had to stay focused," said Loberg, who finished with a match-high 13 kills.
"Last Saturday, we had that mental breakdown toward the end of the set (against Neuqua Valley)," said Vikings coach Annie Seitelman. "Today, it was really nice to see those kids fight through that adversity and come out on the winning end.
"It was nice to see us bounce back today and play our style of volleyball. We played with a faster tempo and our ball control improved from this past weekend."
Led by seniors Maddie Jaudon (8 digs), Anna Clausen (5 kills, 4 blocks) and junior Alyssa Klemm (3 blocks), the Bulldogs gave the Vikings all they could handle in the first game.
"I give a lot of credit to our kids," said Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne. "Our kids came to play. They did a lot of things well and they worked really, really hard. We picked up our blocking the second half of game one and I thought we were in system."
One area that served as a source of frustration for Trippi-Payne was her team's inability to defend numerous Geneva tip kills from Ally Barrett (6 kills, 6 digs), Maddie Courter (5 kills) and Ally Mullen (4 kills).
"We should have picked up a few of those tips," said Trippi-Payne. "The game would have gone the other way if we had picked up a few of those tips."
In Game 2, the Vikings turned to Loberg and the 6-foot-2 dynamo delivered.
Loberg recorded 3 of her game-high 8 kills early on as the Vikings built a 7-0 lead.
"Give credit to Geneva," said Trippi-Payne. "I felt in set two they just started going to Loberg. She had a lot of kills in the second game and we weren't able to stop her.
"They have a lot of good hitters on their team - I'm not saying it's just Grace," added the Batavia coach. "They just got into a rotation where she was in the front row and got multiple kills in a row. That kind of got us stuck in a hole."
Batavia cut its deficit to 12-9 on a Geneva service error before the Vikings closed out the game with a 13-3 run, capped by an ace from senior libero Kelsey Wicinski (11 digs) on match point.
"I thought we played a much cleaner set the second one," said Seitelman. "Part of that was the confidence that was built from the first-set win."
Mikayla Lanasa (16 assists) and Megan Cameron (12 assists) also contributed for the Vikings, who earned a share of the UEC River title as a result of St. Charles North's victory over St. Charles East Tuesday night.
"Last year we missed it (conference title) because we lost to East," said Loberg. "It's good to be able to tie for conference this year."