Senior returns to help Geneva defeat Batavia

Mononucleosis kept Rachel Urbelis out of the first 17 matches of the Geneva girls volleyball teams' season, but the senior came back right at the perfect time -- against Batavia.

Even though she was not in the starting lineup, Urbelis came back with a bang and led the Vikings in kills with 8 in Geneva's 25-15, 25-19 win over rival Batavia in Western Sun Conference action Tuesday.

"I'm so excited to be back," said Urbelis, who got mono in the middle of the summer. "It's been so hard sitting on the bench, I can't stand that. I really, really wanted to play against Batavia…I'm 100 percent now, but still trying to get back in the swing of things."

Urbelis' kills were a highlight, but serving was key for the Vikings (15-4, 6-1). Serving is what really helped the Vikings in both games.

"We have some pretty strong servers," Geneva coach KC Johnsen said. "We are serve-receiving as good as we ever have, and that's pretty impressive for our young team to be doing. It's a nice situation to be in, and I'm grateful."

"They served us tough, but we served them tough too, especially in Game 2," Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne added.

After 6 ties early in Game 1, Geneva broke out with 4 straight points, 3 behind Kelsey Augustine that broke a 10-10 knot.

From there, the Vikings never trailed and reeled off the final 8 points, thanks to Megan Odenthal's service points, including a pair of aces, along with kills from Augustine and Urbelis.

In Game 2, Batavia's serving pushed it ahead 6-2 early, but the Vikings' serving powered them back in the game.

Four ties later, the Vikings took the lead for good, as Taylor Whitley served 6 consecutive points for a 15-9 Geneva lead.

The Bulldogs (8-10, 4-3) could not string together more than a pair of points the rest of the way, as the match ended on an Urbelis kill.

Passing was the Bulldogs' No. 1 problem, according to Trippi-Payne.

"It was very poor, poor passing and digging performance tonight, very poor," Trippi-Payne said. "We just couldn't get our offense going. We need to be able to move our offense around a little bit and get it going. We weren't able to do that at all, and it was all because of our passing. It needs to get better…we didn't play the way we needed to play."