Senior night a great night for Geneva

If only every night could be Senior Night against Geneva for the Batavia girls volleyball team.

The Bulldogs played their most intense and exciting match of the season, topping Western Sun Conference rival and champion Geneva, 18-25, 25-20, 27-25 Thursday after celebrating the careers of 8 seniors.

The win not only avenged an early-season loss to Geneva, but it also allowed Batavia to go 8-0 on its home floor this year.

"At the beginning of the season, we didn't set that goal, but as we went through, we said, 'This is our house, we need to defend our house,'" Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne said. "We play hard at home all the time...on our floor, we are tough to beat. We have a great crowd and a lot of fan support. They have confidence in each other and they know what they need to do to get the job done."

The third game featured 13 ties with Geneva leading by as much as 5 points three times midway through. The final knot was at 25, but back-to-back kills from Taylor Koncelik, who tallied a season-high 14 kills, sealed the deal for the Bulldogs (22-13, 11-3).

Koncelik suffered from a bout with the stomach flu earlier in the week and wasn't sure she was going to be ready to play against Geneva. She missed Tuesday's game against Sycamore and proved just how much her team needed her against the Vikings.

"I was really bummed I missed the game on Tuesday, but coming back and winning today made it so much better," Koncelik said. "The fact that we just beat the No. 1 team in the conference is great."

The second game was almost as close as the third, as there were 11 ties before Batavia took control after a 17-17 knot with 5 straight points behind Koncelik and Laura Doolin kills and Geneva errors. It ended on one of senior Melissa Norville's 9 kills.

In the first game, Geneva (24-5, 12-2) never trailed and jumped out to a 5-0 start behind the serving of Kelsey Augustine. The game ended the same way it started - on a Lauren Wicinski kill. She finished with a match-high 16 kills to go with her 8 digs. Augustine was next with 10 kills, 7 blocks, 4 digs and 2 aces while Taylor Whitley added 7 kills, 8 digs and 2 aces.

"Batavia had a lot of emotion. They just beat us," Geneva coach KC Johnsen said. "You have to give them credit. It was a good volleyball game."