Geneva drops heartbreaker

It was not the way Jenny Pokorny and her Geneva volleyball teammates envisioned their season ending.

But what York lacked in convention was surely compensated in execution.

In a classic sectional-complex match pitting No. 4 versus No. 5 for the Class 4A Addison Trail girls volleyball regional championship, the Vikings ran out of steam.

With the season on the line and the Dukes holding a late 8-point lead in the decisive third game Saturday afternoon in Addison, the Vikings made one last-ditch stand.

Pokorny, the Vikings' four-year senior starting setter, had the last of her match-high 29 assists, feeding Lauren Wicinski with back-to-back assists as part of the Geneva 7-1 run.

Kelsey Augustine added an ace in the run for Geneva, and consecutive hitting errors by York sliced the Vikings' deficit to a more manageable two.

But it was not to be for Geneva as fifth-seeded York, following its script of dropping its first game before rallying to win the final two, advanced to the Lake Park sectional on Thursday with an exhausting 16-25, 25-22, 25-22 victory.

York (24-22), which rallied 21-25, 25-10, 25-15 over Willowbrook in its semifinal match, advances to meet top-seeded Wheaton Warrenville South, which defeated Batavia 25-15 and 25-7 at Bartlett. They will play at 5 p.m. Thursday at Lake Park.

The Vikings, who turned back Addison Trail 25-11, 25-15 to reach the championship match, concluded its year at 27-10.

"(The Dukes) came out really hard (in the third game), and it seemed like we weren't ready," said Pokorny, who added 7 digs and 4 blocks against York. "We fought hard. We did miss a couple of clutch serves."

The Vikings never trailed nor were they tied in capturing the first game, using a 5-1 game-opening run to seize control.

Rachel Urbelis and Augustine were the prime beneficiaries of the Pokorny-directed Geneva attack, and the latter ended the first game with one of her 9 kills.

Twenty-one more points elapsed in the second game before York had its first lead of the afternoon, and the inspired play of junior Brianne Graunke turned the tide for the Dukes.

The middle-blocker restored confidence to York with a series of momentum-changing blocks for kills that enabled the Dukes to break the last of a dozen second-game ties.

Meghan Mullaney gave York a 24-22 lead with a vicious kill, and a rubber game became certain on a Geneva hitting error.

"(Graunke) is definitely the best player on our team," said York coach Patty Iverson. "She does an incredible job blocking."

York scored the first 4 points of the third game, and Geneva was never able to get back into the match, falling behind 23-15 before its last-ditch run.

"We knew (a potential match with York) was going to be a battle," said Geneva coach KC Johnson. "We kind of dug our heels in."

Wicinski finished with a match-high 12 kills; Urbelis concluded her career with 11 kills and 11 digs.

Host Addison Trail ended its season at 14-22; the Blazers' Casey D'Ambrose, Robyn Hart and Marissa Liberio led the squad in its straight-games defeat against the fourth-seeded Vikings..

"Geneva has a strong offense, and we tried to prepare as best we could but couldn't pull through," said Addison Trail coach Jill Petrbok.

For No. 11 Willowbrook, Josie Hopkins led the offensive attack with 6 kills, and Stacie Bower was the defensive spearhead with 9 digs.

"We couldn't get it all together at the same time," said Willowbrook coach Sue Bower. "We lost our intensity (after the first game)."