Batavia rallies in 3rd game
It's time to give the Batavia volleyball team a new nickname. Keep the d-o-g-s at the end, take the B-u-l-l off at the beginning, add U-n-d-e-r.
That's just the way co-captain Mary Nilles likes it.
"A lot of people saw us as underdogs and we like to play it up a little bit," said Nilles. "We're pretty good at fighting back and not getting down."
The latest win in Batavia's blazing 9-1 start came Tuesday at St. Charles North where the Underdogs, er, Bulldogs battled back from an 18-15 deficit in Game 3 for a 25-17, 23-25, 25-21 victory.
Batavia (9-1, 1-0) picked up its second win this season over the North Stars (6-5, 0-1), one that was quite a bit closer than a 25-16, 25-20 victory at the Plainfield North tournament. It was at that tournament the Bulldogs lost to Huntley, their lone defeat.
"Give St. Charles North credit, they look a lot better than they did a couple weeks ago," said Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne, who was particularly impressed with libero Meghan Cousins' defense and serving.
"Toward the end of Game 3 I told my girls to keep coming after it. We knew it was going to be a battle coming in here. Just got to play our game and I thought we picked up some good balls on defense and turned them into offensive transitions."
Early on the Bulldogs looked on their way to another two-game sweep. A pair of aces from Kristen Koncelik and Caitlin Piechota helped Batavia stay in control throughout Game 1.
But after allowing five aces in the first game - and 8 in the first meeting - the North Stars' serve-receive improved and didn't allow an ace over the final two games. Cousins and company started putting the pressure on Batavia with their serves and it was the North Stars who served four aces in Game 3. The North Stars also started to get their middles involved.
"We started to run some things we haven't been running," St. Charles North coach Lindsey Hawkins said. "We started to feed our middles more especially with Jill Stolzenburg, we need to get her the ball more. It's hard because our passing hasn't been there."
There were 7 ties in Game 2, the final at 22-22. A block by Jacey Bell gave the North Stars the lead for good, and they closed out the game when Kim Juriga slammed back an overpass by the Bulldogs.
St. Charles North carried the momentum into Game 3 before Batavia's late rally. Trailing 18-15, Nilles started Batavia's comeback with a kill, block and tip kill to make it 18-18. Koncelik put away points 24 and 25 with kills from the middle. Those wouldn't have been possible without digs by Meghan Fabian and assists from Nilles and Mary Kate Bryant.
Katie Fuerst (10 kills) and Juriga (6 kills) led the North Stars attack. Sarah Clarkson set 15 assists and Lauren Metts had 13.
Nilles had a career-high 11 kills plus 16 assists and 3 blocks. Bryant led in assists (19) and digs (13) to go with 7 kills while Koncelik and Piechota both had 8 kills, Kaytlin St. Clair 3 blocks and Stephanie Kinane 11 digs.
In short, the kind of team effort Batavia has displayed during its red-hot start.
"We were all doing well and the passes were perfect," Koncelik said. "We needed to pick up our energy (in Game 3). We all came together those last few points and really pushed it."