Girls volleyball: Geneva keeps its perfect season going
The Rosary girls volleyball team kept pace with Geneva until late in the first set of their match Thursday night.
Leading Rosary by only by a point, 20-19, the Vikings kicked their serving game into high gear and pulled away to win, 25-21.
Geneva continued with strong serves in the second game to overwhelm the Royals, 25-7, to win the nonconference match on its home court.
"I think our team did a really nice job of serving aggressively (late in the first set)," said Geneva coach Annie Seitelman. "We were able to string several points back to back down the stretch to give us that cushion.
"We also did a really nice job of putting pressure on them in the second set," Seitelman said. "By serving them aggressively, we keep them out of their system and helped the transition on our side."
Rosary (7-2) scored the first 3 points of the first set and led until Geneva tied the game 7-7 on a block. Neither team was able to pull away. After the sixth tie at 14-14, Geneva went ahead on a 3-point spurt. Rosary battled back and pulled within 20-19 on a Lauren Brummel (3 kills) spike.
Geneva (8-0) finally took control of the game, going on a 5-2 run for the win.
"I think the kids did a really nice job of not getting too down in the first set," said Seitelman. "I think they did a nice job of staying composed even when the game was getting tight and we were battling point for point. I thought they did a nice job of just taking care of each ball."
"Honestly I wasn't getting too nervous," said Geneva's Mikayla Lanasa about the start of the first set. "I knew we would come back with a lot of energy and we did."
The senior setter had 20 assists and 4 digs.
It was all Geneva in the second game.
Grace Loberg's (7 kill) first spike of the contest put her team up 2-1, and the Vikings never trailed.
After a Royal service error that put the Vikings up 16-6, Julia Brown (5 kills) went to the service line and made 9 straight serves.
Her string was finally broke on a kill by Rosary's Taylor Brown but the Vikings were leading 24-7. They scored the winning point on the next serve with a Loberg kill.
"In the second game, they served very aggressively to control the ball so we couldn't run our offense which is our strong point," said Rosary coach Rachel Fox. "Service receives is what really took us out of our game."
Payton Bellano had 7 digs for Geneva while classmate Allsyon Barrett earned 5 kills.
Meegan Hart and Maya Sullivan notched 3 kills each for Rosary. Julie Gautheir made 12 assists for the Royals.