Close not enough for Geneva
The Geneva girls volleyball team had plans on not only dashing the hopes for Sycamore winning the Western Sun Conference outright, but also ruining the Spartans' perfect record.
The Spartans, however, had other plans. They kept their perfect record (27-0) and secured the conference title outright in a 25-22, 28-26 win over the Vikings in Geneva Tuesday.
"We went in two (games) -- that's was our objective," Sycamore coach Debbie Klock said. "We wanted to win in two, so they definitely did that."
"They aren't (27-0) for nothing," added Geneva coach KC Johnsen, whose Vikings won the conference last year. "That's a pretty good volleyball team."
Game 2 proved to be the more exciting of the two. Sycamore led most of the way by no more than five points.
With Sycamore leading 22-18, Geneva rallied by scoring the next 3 points behind 2 Spartans violations and a Kelsey Augustine kill.
After an Allison Johnson kill, the Vikings (19-8) responded with back-to-back kills from Lauren Wicinski that tied the game for the first time.
"She was the big-time player in the match," Johnsen said of Wicinski, who led all players with 9 kills.
The two teams exchanged points on the next three plays -- two kills from Wicinski and another from Rachel Urbelis -- until Sycamore's Caitlin Johnson and Allison Johnson put up a double block to give their team a 27-26 advantage.
The match ended on a close call when a ball Geneva hit landed out of bounds.
"Once we had our backs to the wall, we played pretty good volleyball," Johnsen said.
Game 1 featured 7 ties and neither team led by more than five points. Geneva led the majority of the game until the Spartans tied the game at 20, then captured the lead for good.
The game ended on a Vikings serve that went out of bounds.
"(Game 1) went as expected," Johnsen said. "We missed (5) serves, and that's too many to miss against a team like this."
"(Geneva) played well, much better than the last time as far as keeping the ball in," added Klock, whose Spartans topped the Vikings in three earlier in the season. "They did a nice job."