Girls volleyball: Mother McAuley denies Geneva
A pair of 37-1 volleyball powerhouses squared off Saturday at the Class 4A Hinsdale South supersectional, and for most of the match Geneva played with the lead just a few points away from its first trip to state.
Few programs have as proud of a tradition as Mother McAuley, and the Mighty Macs never wilted even when Geneva had them down.
The Vikings won the first set 25-22, and they had a 4-point lead in the second set and a 7-point advantage in the third, yet each time McAuley rallied late for a 22-25, 25-20, 25-21 victory in front of a loud standing-room-only crowd in Darien.
"It's easier said than done," Geneva senior setter Mikayla Lanasa of closing out a match. "It's harder than it looks obviously.
"There were momentum turns and it happens in the game. This was a great atmosphere to play in and we finished strong. We played our hearts out and that's all I could ask."
Mother McAuley (38-1) will face Niles West in the Class 4A state semifinals at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Illinois State University.
Geneva finishes the best season in school history at 37-2, something that undoubtedly will be a source of great pride but wasn't much consolation Saturday.
"Everyone is really proud of each other for the season," Geneva senior middle Julia Brown said. "Obviously we had higher goals than supersectional and we wanted to go all the way but we're not disappointed in the members of our team at all. We're really proud of each other. We just wish we would have kept our momentum up."
The Vikings never trailed in the first set, opening the match on Ally Barrett's kill. With Brown serving two aces in a 5-point run that included a Barrett tip kill, the Vikings led 7-2 - an advantage that grew to 12-4, 18-10 and 21-12 as Geneva's power was too much for McAuley.
The Mighty Macs gave a glimpse of what was to come by finishing the first set strong, using a 9-2 surge to get as close as 23-21. Brown's kill in the middle finally got Geneva to 24, then Molly Lambillotte hit off the tip of McAuley's block out of bounds to close the first set.
McAuley repeated that strong close in both the second and third sets, only this time the Mighty Macs came all the way back to win. Down 16-12 in the second set, then 17-14, Notre Dame recruit Charley Niego (11 kills) started a 7-0 run with a tip kill that ended with McAuley up 21-17. It was the worst stretch of serve-receive in the match for Geneva that led to 4 easy points.
Brown's block and Lanasa's tip got Geneva back on the board but it was just a temporary halt to the Macs' momentum; Katie O'Connell - who led McAuley with 17 kills - hit off Geneva's block on game point to force the deciding third set.
"This has been a comeback team all season," Mother McAuley coach Jennifer DeJarld said. "They don't go down easy. It's so hard to block these hitters. They are incredible players. Once we started blocking a little better and playing smarter on defense, we were able to execute better. Once we started slowing down the ball (on the block), I think we frustrated them a little bit."
Geneva wasn't frustrated early in set three. Barrett's back-to-back aces, then Loberg's push kill put Geneva up 5-2. DeJarld called timeout down 10-4, and Lambillotte followed with an ace.
McAuley gradually pulled closer, yet Geneva still led 19-15 after a big swing from Loberg. Niego again was in the middle of McAuley's comeback, starting a 6-0 run with a kill and then serving the next five points.
Seitelman took both of her timeouts in that stretch, yet the Mighty Macs kept surging. Loberg tooled a ball to finally give Geneva a sideout, and Barrett had a tip kill moments later, but those turned out to be the Vikings' only 2 points in a match-ending 10-2 run for McAuley.
"We tried to minimize their runs," Brown said. "That's what we were working on all season but today we weren't able to as well as we have in the past. We gave it everything we had. We have no regrets with our season."
The 10-2 run to finish the third set coupled with 10-4 in the first set and 11-3 in the second gave McAuley a 31-9 advantage in the match's biggest moments.
"We had the momentum early in both sets," Geneva coach Annie Seitelman said of the second and third. "McAuley is a great team, they have a great tradition, they just chipped away at it. They never got out of sync. Down the stretch they just made those runs and that was the difference.
"When things got a little closer I think we got a little tentative. We've got to go up and take those big swings, serve aggressively. It's a game of momentum. A couple blocks, kills, digs here or there, it goes one way or the other, it could be a different story."
Loberg led Geneva with 17 kills and 17 digs. Barrett had 10 kills and 12 digs, Lambillotte and Ally Mullen had 5 kills, Lanasa set 33 assists and libero Payton Bellano was busy with 16 digs.
"I couldn't be more proud of my team," Lanasa said. "We got in the gym every day and worked our butts off and I couldn't be happier than to end with a great team like this, the kind of year we had. I've never had a team that has had this great of chemistry."