Batavia sweeps Wheaton Academy

It didn't take long for the full-throated excitement of the new high school season to hit Batavia and Wheaton Academy's volleyball teams.

In fact, there was a charge in the Warriors gym even before the varsity set foot on the floor, thanks to a three-game sophomore match. Batavia's varsity won, as their sophomores had, and the 25-16, 25-22 had all the blood-pumping atmosphere as the underclass match.

"It's nice to finally get out here and see where we're at and what we have to work on tomorrow," Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne said.

At the key moments, Batavia put its serving, offense and defense together - nowhere as emphatically as the final points, in which Katie Rueffer served and Melissa Norville applied the key hits.

"I think the first part of the game, we all had to get under control," Rueffer said. "At the end, we were kind of getting used to each other on the floor."

Batavia and Wheaton Academy have met in the season opener for a number of years, and the Warriors' last loss in the curtain-raiser was 2004.

"We came out better this year, stronger," Rueffer said. Wheaton Academy fell behind in the second game as it had in the first game, but came roaring back from a 15-7 deficit. The Warriors tied the game at 19-19 and the teams were never far apart from that point through the final point.

"Our serve receive was really good in Game 1," Trippi-Payne said. "We were able to run our offense really well. Then in Game 2, our serve receive passing broke down quite a bit."

Trippi-Payne said the Bulldogs became more reliant on their defense through the second game, a fact borne out by the number of extended points in the game.

"It wasn't pretty at times, but we pulled it off," Trippi-Payne said. "There are some things we need to work on defensively."

Wheaton Academy is a younger team this year and shuffled its lineup Wednesday due to some short-term injuries.

"Some of the kinks that I thought we were going to have were there," Wheaton Academy coach D.A. Nichols said. "We've been working on serve receive ball control. Tonight, at times, we were controlling it at times. But I don't think you really saw all that we can do."

Balance is going to be important for the Warriors this fall, and they worked the ball around effectively at times. Other times, things broke down in the way they do sometimes in early-season matches.

"We're just waiting for our unit to step up defensively, with serve receive especially," Nichols. "When we do, we'll be a different team. I mean, you won't even recognize us."