Geneva adds couple more milestones

The list of accomplishments continues for the Geneva girls volleyball team.

The No. 2 seed Vikings first won the Western Sun Conference in the regular season and then in the same day, reached the 30-win mark after beating No. 10 Bartlett 25-12, 25-10 in the Class 4A Geneva regional title match Saturday.

"It's a good place to start the rest of the season," Geneva coach KC Johnsen said. "We are excited."

"We got further than we did last year, so it feels good to win it," Geneva's Kelsey Augustine added.

With the win, the Vikings (30-7) will play York, the winner of the Lake Park regional. It advanced after beating St. Charles North in two games. The Dukes and Geneva will play in the sectional semifinal Tuesday at 7 p.m. at York.

Bartlett scored the first three points in Game 1 off a pair of Emily Hayes aces and a kill from Carly Sahagian, but the Vikings scored the next 3. Geneva tied the game at 4 and 5, then proceeded to go on a 7-point run behind Lauren Wicinski's serving, Bartlett errors and a Katie Sommer kill.

Geneva led 11-5 after a Wicinski kill and never looked back after that. It scored the final 7 of 8 points and the game ended on back-to-back errors on Bartlett.

In Game 2, Geneva scored the first 5 points, thanks to Taylor Whitley's serving, Bartlett errors and more kills from Augustine and Wicinski, who had a match-high 11 kills. A Hayes kill broke the rally, only to have the Vikings score the next 5 points for a 10-1 lead.

Bartlett never came close to recovering, and the match ended on a Lauren Fanning kill.

"Everything just seemed to go our way," Johnsen said. "We were serving well, we were passing well...we had a little slump on (serving) about two weeks ago, but we spent a little time on it."

"Our passing just was not there," Bartlett coach Brandon Mueller added. "Nobody got in the groove really...it just seemed like we came out too flat today."

Bartlett closed the season 21-12. The Hawks were led by Hayes (4 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces, 1 block) and Sahagian (4 kills, 3 digs).

"I'm proud of the girls," Mueller said. "Twenty-one victories is a lot of wins for this team. We started playing really well at the end of the year. It's a shame we didn't bring our best game today."